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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



GLIMPSES ofTRUTH 

ALONG THE 

Boundaries of Thought 

Concerning Certain Knowledge, Matter, the 

Soul, the Deity, Evolution, Assyriology, 

Higher Criticism of the Bible, 

the Christ and other Masters, . 

Immortality, and Heaven 

by 
S. R. H. BIGGS, SOUTH LINCOLN, MASS. 

Copyrighted, 1895 



Second Edition, Enlarged and Imp 




Published by the author 

price, $1.00 0NE COPY RECEIVED 



; 



^ 



7622 

Ye shall know the truth, and the 
truth shall make you free." 



Printed by BEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY, 
Church Printers, Boston, Mass. 



TO MY DEAR AND FAITHFUL WIFE, TO WHOM I AM 
LARGELY INDEBTED FOR LEISURE TO STUDY, THIS VOL- 
UME IS GRATEFULLY INSCRIBED. 



<1 have yet many things to say unto you, but ye 
cannot bear them now.' yoJin XVL 

* When he, the Spirit of truth is come, he will 
guide you into all truth.' ' He shall receive of mine, 
and shall show it unto you.' yohn XVI. 

It seems reasonable, then, to say that revelation is 
not completed, but being completed; that we look for 
higher knowledge of God, for larger moral views of His 
relation to us, and of ours to Him, as time goes on and 
mankind grows. ' Stopford Brooke. 

1 Everywhere there is continuity, evolution without 
a break; and in revelation it is the same.' Stopford 
Brooke. 

1 Men want a theology as well as a daily religion of 
(i sweet reasonableness," want the intellect satisfied as 
well as the heart. They wish for ideas under which 
they can collect their thoughts with regard to the ques- 
tions involved in the relation between God and man, 
such as the Being of God, what nature and man and 
evil are in relation to Him, forgiveness of sins, immor- 
tality, the future fate of the race. ' Stopford Brooke. 



INTRODUCTION. 

THOUGHT AND deed are intertwined. Good re- 
flection leads to good affection and good action. 
As a man really thinks so is he. And thought in 
order to perpetuate its vigor and renew its youth must 
ever lift a seeking eye afresh unto the living light. 
The author of this work does not pretend to be a dis- 
coverer of fresh facts nor the propounder of many new 
theories, but simply the humble presenter in a small 
compass, of truth, which has in the main, become the 
common property of thinking men, that it may thus be 
helpful to those who have not time nor opportunity for 
the study of larger and more technical works. Our 
aim has been to present the principal results of what 
we deem the best thinking of to-day in the depart- 
ments of knowledge included within the scope of this 
volume. Every sincere and systematic seeker after 
truth desires a rational and scientific co-ordination of 
the facts of the world and of human life. Such a reader, 
we hope, will not be wholly disappointed in this work. 
Into it has been admitted as much 1 Psychology and 
2 Metaphysics as to the author seemed indispensable to 
correct and comprehensive religious thought. In it are 
set forth how we know the soul, how reason and affec- 
tion thread their way to the presence and vision of 
God, and how the mind reaches the restful conviction 

i The Science of the Soul. 

2 The science of necessary conceptions and fundamental re- 
lations. 



that the universe is energized by the All-Perfect, the 
All- Knowing, and the All-Loving. The process of 
evolution, which pervades the whole universe ,and con- 
stitutes a large portion of all science, and whose tide of 
recognition by the thinking public knows no ebb, is, in 
these pages, treated in its relation to the origin of 
things, or as the Divine method of Creation. Herein 
is indicated the career of a world or system of worlds 
from evolution to dissolution, and of our humanity upon 
this orb. Moreover, the marvellous discoveries of the 
last few years have thrown a flood of light upon the 
ancient oriental world. ' The 1 monuments of Babylonia 
and Assyria have been rescued from their hiding places, 
and the writing upon them has been made to speak 
once more in living words. A dead world has been 
called again to life by the spade of the excavator and 
the patient labour of the decipherer. Discovery after 
discovery has been pouring in upon us from oriental 
lands. ' A part of this fresh light from the monuments 
has been reflected on the Book of Genesis and is per- 
mitted to illumine the pages of this volume. Again, in 
our age the Bible is going though the fire of criticism as 
never before. What is the outcome to which the critics 
conduct us ? We offer our readers the chief results 
reached in this field of scholarship. Furthermore, we 
compare the teachings of the world's great masters, 
with the words of Him at whose feet we sit as learners. 
Also, we point out a few stepping stones in the waters 
of the stream of death, and give some reasons for the 
belief that the Christ will one day lay at the foot of 
the throne of the Highest the spoils of a world cap- 
tured from ignorance and sin. 
i Prof. A. H. Sayce. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

The Fundamental Fact of Knowledge. 14 

Consciousness. 14 

Descartes' Dictum. 14 

Intuition. 14 

The Reason. 14 

Mysteriousness of Being. 14 

Substance and Attribute. 1 5 

Being, how known. 1 5 

Matter, how known. 16 

The Soul, how known. 16 

Introspection. 16 

The Soul, different from matter. 1 7 

The Soul, ascendant over matter. 1 7 

Thought and Brain changes. 17 

The Soul, more certainly known than matter. 1 8 

The External world, how known. 18 

The Ego, how known. 19 

The Substance of the Soul. 19 

The Deity, how known. 19 

We know Infinite Being is. 19 

We know Eternal Being is. 20 

We know Absolute Being is. 20 

The Noumenal realm and the Phenomenal. 21 

Omnipotent Being is. 21 

The will of God and Activities of Nature. 22 

Omniscient Being is. 22 

Evolution and Design. 23 

The Cause of All is Good. 23 



Pain. 23 

Natural Evil. 23 

The Predaceous Habit of Animals. 24 

Human Suffering. 24 

Moral Evil. 25 

The Freedom of the Will. 25 

Sin. 25 

The Beneficence of the World. 2 5 

Willingness to Live. 25 

The Love of God, how known. 25 

The Unity of God, how known. 27 

The Oneness of the Universe. 27 

God is a Person. 28 

Personality, definition of. 28 

The Universe, an infinite brain. 29 

The Deity Immanent in the World. 29 

The Universe, the Star-domed City of God. 30 

The Eternity of Matter. 30 

God Has Ever Been working. 30 

Eternal Succession of Cycles. 30 

Matter is in Constant Flux. ' 3 1 

Science Discovers only Laws. 3 1 

Laws are not Causes. 3 1 

Laws are methods. 3 1 

Natural Law is Divine Method. 32 

Evolution is Established. 32 

Evolution is a Universal Law. 33 

Evolution is God's Method. 33 

Evolution, definition and illustrations. 33 

Evolution of the Worlds. 34 

Babylonian Origin of the Biblical Account of 

Creation. 37 



Evil of Trying to Harmonize the Account in 

Genesis with Modern Science. 41 

Evolution of Minerals. 43 

Evolution of Life. 44 

Evolution of Plants. 45 

Evolution of Animals. 45 

Evolution of Man. 45 

Man is from God through Nature. 47 

Evolution of Consciousness. 47 
Babylonian Origin of the Biblical Account of 

the Creation of Man. 48 
The Person Adam of Genesis never existed. 50 
No Eden or Golden Age Lies Behind Hu- 
manity. 52 
Babylonian Origin of the Garden of Eden. 53 
Of the Tree of Knowledge. 5 3 
Of the Tree of Life. 5 3 
Of the Temptation and Fall of Man. 54 
Probably Man Originated in several Centers. 5 5 
The Monogenist Theory. 5 5 
The Polygenist Theory. 5 5 
The Aborigines of America. 56 
Babylonian Origin of the ten Antediluvian 

Patriarchs, 57 

Of their Long Lives. 58 

Of the Deluge. 60 
The Accounts in Genesis from the Creation 
of the World to the Going out from 
the Ark, a Reflection of the Babylonian 

Zodiac. 64 

The Antiquity of Man. 66 

Archbishop Usher's Chronology, 66 

Evidence of Geology. 66 



Of Archaeology. 


67 


Of the Science of Culture. 


68 


Of Astronomy. 


69 


Of the Glacial Era. 


70 


Evolution of Language. 


7i 


Probably there never was a Primeval Mother- 




Tongue. 


72 


Babylonian Origin of the Account of the Con- 




fusion of Tongues. 


73 


The Evolution of Civilization. 


73 


The Rough Stone Age. 


74 


The Polished Stone Age. 


74 


The Bronze Age. 


74 


The Iron Age. 


74 


The Evolution of Society. 


75 


The Permanent Family. 


75 


Increasing Intelligence. 


75 


Lengthened Infancy, 


75 


Prolongation of Parental Affection. 


75 


Tribal Warfare. 


76 


Aggregation of Tribes for Mutual Defence. 


76 


Slavery instead of Slaughter. 


76 


Agricultural Industry. 


76 


Division of Labor. 


76 


Interdependence. 


76 


Spirit of Christianity. 


76 


Extinction of War. 


76 


An Approximately Perfect State of Society 




all over the World. 


76 


Man's Golden Age is in the Future. 


77 


Human Progress the Law of History. 


77 


Periods of Stagnation and Declension. 


78 


Nevertheless Humanity Advances* 


78 



Environment. 78 

Empire of the Dead over the Living. 79 

Evolution of the Highest Conception of God. 79 

Fetichism. 79 

Polytheism. 79 

Monotheism. 79 

Evolution of the Bible. 80 

Old Testament Canon. 81 

New Testament Canon. 81 

Higher Criticism of the Bible. 82 

Lower Criticism of the Bible. 82 

Higher Criticism of the Pentateuch, results. 83 
Pentateuch not all of Mosaic or Pre-exilic Origin. 84 

Three Main Component Parts. 85 

Deuteronomy. 85 

The Elohistor Priestly Code. 85 

The Jehovistic History Book. 85 

Other Smaller Documents. 86 
Date and Authorship of the Main Bulk of 

the Hexateuch. 86 

Pentateuch in Part Mosaic in Origin. 87 

Date of the Other Books of the Old Testament. 88 

Higher Criticism of the Gospels, results. bg 

Genuineness and Authenticity of the Gospels. 90 

Oral Tradition. 91 

History of the Gospels. 92 

Papias. 93 

Justin Martyr. 93 

The Muratorian Canon. 95 

Theophilus. 95 

Eusebius. 95 

lrenaeus. 96 

The Fourth Gospel as Authentic as the Others, 97 



All must Stand the test of Scholarly Criticism. 97 
The Gospel-image of Jesus certainly represents 

the Original in all Essential Particulars. 97 

Truth Revealed to All Nations and Men in Pro- 
portion to their Ability to Receive It. 99 
Greek and Roman Sages and the Golden Rule. 99 
Hillel and the Golden Rule. 99 
Confucius and the Golden Rule. 100 
Jesus and the Golden Rule. 100 
Lao-tsze and Returning Good for Evil. 1 00 
Buddha and Universal Love. 100 
Jesus and Universal Love. 101 
In His Doctrine of Returning Good for Evil 

Jesus Superior to Confucius. 101 

In His Fearless Enunciation of Truth Jesus 

Superior to Confucius. 102 

In His Doctrine of the Deity Jesus Superior to 

Buddha. 102 

in His Doctrine of Immortality Jesus Superior 

to Buddha. 103 

Nirvana. 104 

The Many Mansions. 104 

In the Robust Practicalness of His Teaching and 

Example Jesus Superior to Buddha. 105 

In His Consciousness and Expression of 

the Divine Being Jesus Superior to all Other 

Teachers. 1 06 

Jesus the Greatest Teacher. 107 

The Essential Revelation to Christ and 

Humanity, Inward and Natural. 109 

Jesus Did Extraordinary Things. 1 1 1 

The Supernaturalness of These Events and Their 

Antagonism to the Established Course of 

Nature too Much Affirmed. 1 1 1 

10 



Different Grades or Degrees of the Natural. 1 1 1 
So-Called Miracles not Without Analogies in 

our own Time. 1 1 2 

The World Needs the Human Christ. 112 
Jesus Recognized the Great Value of the 

Human Soul. 1 1 5 
God's Great Work in Nature the Individu- 
ation of Force. 1 1 6 
Man the Greatest Work of God in the World. 1 1 6 
Spirit-Immortality Gives Infinite Value and 

Significance to the Divinely Developed worlds. 1 1 7 

The Moon a Dead World. 1 1 7 
Cosmic Death of all the Planets of the Solar 

System and their Reunion with the Sun. 1 18 

The Soul Immortal Survives the Wreck. 1 18 

An Unseen Universe Environs Us. 119 
The Soul Will Have a Body in the Unseen 

World. 120 

We are Now Habilimented in an Unseen Body. 120 

Worlds Pervading Each Other. 121 

Organism within an Other. 1 2 1 

Physical Concomitants of Thought. 1 2 1 

Psychical Identity in the Life to Come. 122 

Physical Identity in the Future State. 122 

We Shall Know Each Other There. 122 

The Christ Verily Rose From the Dead. 122 

Certainty of the Resurrection. 123 

The Disciples not Hallucinated. 124 

The Eleven not Clairvoyant nor Clairaudient. 124 
Jesus Resumed Temporarily His Crucified 

Body and Dissipated it at Will. 125 
Power of Spirit over Matter Manifested on the 

Border Land To-day. 126 

1 1 



Purpose of the Appearance of Jesus. 126 
Christ's Appearance to Paul. 126 
Nearness to the World of the Departed. 127 
Salvation in the Future Life. 128 
Dives and Lazarus. 128 
Christ's Heavenly Ministry. 130 
The Spirits in Prison. 130 
Clement of Alexandria. 1 3 1 
The Gospel in Hades. 1 3 1 
Oneness of Moral Law for all worlds. 1 3 1 
Endless Punishment Unbiblical. 132 
Sheol. 132 
Hades. 133 
Gehenna. 1 3 3 
Everlasting Punishment. 134 
Olam. 135 
Aion. 1 3 5 
Aionios. 1 3 5 
Nature of Punishment. 136 
Purpose of Punishment. 1 36 
Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. 137 
Day of Judgment. 138 
All Harsh Passages in the New Testament 
that speak of Tribulation and Separation 
relate to the Coming of Christ in the 
Clouds. 139 
Coming of Christ in the Clouds was at Be- 
ginning of His Mediatorial Reign. 140 
Coming of Christ in the Clouds to Rule, Re- 
ward, and Punish was to be during Life- 
time of Some who Heard Him Speak. 140 
Coming of Christ in the Clouds at Time of 
Tribulation and Separation was at End 
of Jewish Age or Dispensation. 142 
12 



All Mankind will at Last be Saved. 145 

Perplexity of Partialists. 145 

Universal Salvation Necessary to Vindicate 

Goodness of God. 146 

Universalism Prevalent in the Early Church. 146 

First Four Christian Schools. 146 

Origen. 147 

Teaching of the Bible. 147 

Passages of Scripture. 148 

Conquest of All Evil. 149 
Christ's Mediatorial Kingdom Delivered to 

the Father. 149 

God, All and in AIL 149 



13 



Glimpses of Truth. 



What is truth? — This question Pilate put to him 
whose life purpose was tc bear witness unto the truth. 
'And when he said this, he went out. ' It is difficult to 
determine whether in Pilate's question there was sin- 
cerity, sarcasm, jest, indifference, or 4< the bitterness of a 
mind that had been tossed to and fro in the troubled sea 
of contemporaneous thought and despaired of an anchor- 
age.' 2< But whatever may have been Pilate's state 
of mind on this occasion, let us avoid imitating his ex- 
ample in one respect at least, — let us wait for a reply.' 
A partial answer to the question is, fact and harmcny 
of thought with fact are truth. This harmony between 
thought and fact is expressed by the term knowledge. 
2 <We are said to know anything when we think about it 
just what we should, — when we think it as it is. ' 

Man has been defined as a rational animal, a laughing 
animal, and a cooking animal. He is also, to a greater 
or less extent, a truth-seeking animal. 3 'Wherever the 
search after truth begins, there life begins; wherever 
that search ends, there life ceases. 

i Handy Commentary. 

2 Rev. "A. W. Momerie. 

3 Ruskin. 

12 



Attention and Reflection are Necessary to the 
Acquisition of Knowledge or Truth. — Greater or 
less effort of attention is required in different spheres of 
mental activity. In the reading of a romance the mind 
follows pleasantly and almost unconsciously the train 
of conceptions presented by the author. But to appre- 
nend a work which deals somewhat with scientific or 
philosophical questions greater effort of will is neces- 
sary to arrest the attention. After reading such a 
book carelessly or listlessly one is hardly aware of a sin- 
gle idea that he has gained. But reading it with due 
attention is followed by distinctness, vividness, and com- 
pleteness in the conceptions formed; and they are re- 
tained among the mind's permanent possessions. At- 
tention should be constant and persistent. 

By reflection we are enabled to perceive the nature 
of truth. Meditation unveils her face and reveals her 
beauty and glory. Speaking of knowledge or under- 
standing, Solomon says that the successful seeker must 
search for her as for hidden treasure. Jewels do not 
usually lie upon the surface of the ground, but are hid- 
den in the receptacles of the earth. They are to be 
dug for before they can be found and enjoyed. So, 
much truth, needed for intellectual growth and the 
moral life, is in prof undo; and must be searched for as 
the precious jewel. 



13 



The fundamental fact of knowledge is self- 
consciousness. — In our quest after truth we begin 
with Descartes' dictum, Cogito, e?'go sum, I am con- 
scious, ' 'that is, I know directly the activities of a be- 
ing, which being is myself. ' Thus we are grounded 
in certainty, reality, knowledge. We exist. We are 
conscious of the facts of personal experience. 

Consciousness is an adequate and trustworthy 
witness. — It is the soul's direct and immediate know- 
ledge of its own acts and states. It is of the very na- 
ture of the soul to have such knowledge of itself. Thus 
it knows its being, perceptions, reflections, recollections, 
imaginations, affections, volitions, and all that it does 
or experiences. The testimony of consciousness as to 
the soul's existence, acts, and states, is final. It 
admits of no appeal. Reliance upon consciousness is 
no specialty of the philosopher, but the prerogative of 
every human being. 

There is in consciousness the power to directly 
perceive absolute truth and simple fact. — Such 
perception is called intuition. And the power to so 
perceive is named reason in contrast with reasoning. 
This direct insight into truth and onlook upon fact, is 
the highest characteristic of our intelligent nature. 

All being is mysterious. — 'Hast thou,' says Col- 
eridge, 'ever said to thyself thoughtfully, It is! heed- 
less in that moment whether it were a man before 
thee, or a flower, or a grain of sand .... If thou hast 
indeed attained to this, thou wilt have felt the pres- 

i Pres. Porter. 



ence of a mystery which must have fixed thy spirit in 
awe and wonder. ' To be is natural and reasonable, 
though mysterious. Being is what is. And 'only 
being is. ' So truly said Parmenides, the old Eleatic 
philosopher. Non-being is not. 

We distinguish between substance and attri- 
bute. — An entity, whether material or spiritual, is 
more than a mere conjunction of powers, attributes or 
properties. ''An apple which is red, and round, and 
hard, is not merely redness, and roundness, and hard- 
ness; these circumstances may all alter while the apple 
remains the same apple .... The attributes and qualities 
which we observe are supported by and inherent in 
something; and that something is called a substratum 
or substance.' The attributes are not superinduced 
upon the substance as folds or wrappings are thrown 
over or around a nucleus or core within. There is no 
covering of qualities that can be removed from the sub- 
stratum, laying it bare. Substance and attribute in- 
terpenetrate each other. They blend together. They 
are distinguishable in thought but inseparable in fact. 
2 'We cannot separate length from something that is 
long, nor color from something colored, nor thought 
from a thinking being, nor joy from a rejoicing be- 
ing.' There is no substance without attributes, nor 
attributes without a substance. 

We know being by its attributes We have 

intuitive knowledge of these. They manifest them- 
selves to our consciousness. The reason directly per- 
ceives them. And by them we know whether the 
being is material or spiritual, personal or impersonal, 
finite or infinite, temporal or eternal. 

iWhewell. 
2Pres.. Porter. 

15 



We know matter by its attributes ' <A11 things 

which occupy space, offer resistance, possess weight, 
and transfer motion to other things when they strike 
against them, are termed, material substances or bodies, 
or simply matter,' by these characteristics we know 
and define matter in general. Every material thing 
has not only these common qualities but also other attri- 
butes peculiar to it or its class. An object has a cer- 
tain form, feel, color, odor, taste. By these qualities 
we know it is an orange and not something else. 

We know the soul by its attributes — Prominent 
among these 2 < are its capacities to know, to feel, and 
to will. It is usually distinguished and defined by 
these. ' Knowing, feeling, and willing are modes of ac- 
tivity and suffering of which we have direct knowledge 
in consciousness. The reason looks within and per- 
ceives these operations and passions of the human 
spirit. This inlooking is called introspection. Law- 
rence remarked 'that the scalpel, in opening the brain, 
came upon no soul.' But the knife's failure is no dis- 
proof of the soul's existence. For reflection, affection, 
and volition, the attributes of this subtile substance are 
known by internal observation. We must use the 
right instrument. 3< The test-tube will not detect an 
insincerity, or the microscope analyze a grief.' How 
impertinent, then, the question, one is often asked, 
'How do you know there is a soul; did you ever see 
one?' The s©ul itself is not to be perceived by an out- 
ward-looking eye in any world. 

i Prof. Huxley. 
2Pres. Porter. 
3James Martineau. 

16 



We know the soul to be different from mat- 
ter The attributes of matter are discerned by the 

senses; those of the soul by consciousness. Matter it- 
self is inert. It moves ' 'only as it is acted upon by a 
force from without itself.' ''The soul is self-active.' 
It 'is impelled to action from within by its own energy.' 
Matter is unconscious being. It has no thought, feel- 
ing, nor volition. The soul is conscious being. It 
knows itself. It thinks, feels, and wills. And it 
knows its thoughts, feelings, and volitions. The soul 
distinguishes itself from all material things, even from 
the body that encases it. 

We know the soul to oe ascendant over mat- 
ter The existence of an unfailing parallelism between 

mental activity and brain changes is established. 
Thought and nerve fibre are closely allied. When the 
soul is thinking, the brain is acting. But thoughts are 
not caused by the nervous processes. They are not, 
as some affirm, the subjective shadows, merely, of 
brain activities that are taking place automatically, or of 
their own accord. The soul is in inter-action with the 
nervous mechanism. It energizes within the wonder- 
fully complex cerebral structures. It is the cause of 
thought and will cerebration, the generator of that 
brain activity involved in the intellectual and volitional 
processes. The fact that we have intelligent control of 
thought, volition, and action, is knowledge of the tran- 
scendance of the soul over brain changes, that cannot 
be gainsaid. In the perception and comparison of ex- 
ternal objects in which succession, similarity, and differ- 
ence are recognized; in self-originated action or the ex- 
ercise of will that sets the muscles in motion or stops 

iPres. Porter. 

17 



their activity; in the intelligent use of a power of recol- 
lection which implies intellectual discrimination and voli- 
tional effort; in the discriminating, classifying, and 
verifying processes by which is gained a store of scien- 
tific knowledge; in the recognition of imperative moral 
law which has issued in such great triumphs of self- 
mastery; in the lofty speculations of philosophical 
thought, due to the endeavors to explain the universe, 
we have the certitude that the soul is regnant over 
brain-tissue. 

We know the soul more certainly than we 
know matter. — One of the best-established conclusions 
of modern psychology is that we do not directly per- 
ceive the external world, but apprehend it only as it 
affects us through our organism. The world which we 
know and love so well, and which seems to be out- 
ward, is indeed inward, subjective, not objective. Re- 
ferring to this gigantic illusion, Emerson says: * Life will 
shDw you masks that are worth all your carnivals. 
Yonder mountain must migrate into your mind. ' Mate- 
rial objects produce through the nerves sensations of 
sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell. The sensations 
are what the soul perceives and not the material things 
themselves. When we see and handle a piece of gold, 
we are conscious of the sensations yellowness, hardness, 
weight, form. But the sensations are all that we are 
directly conscious of, the thing itself is external to both 
the soul and the bodily organs, and cannot be directly 
known by us. Moreover, we must distinguish the sen- 
sation from the attribute or quality of the material 
thing that produces it. ' ' Sweetness means one thing 
when it is said to be in the sugar, and another when it 

i Pres. Porter. 

18 



is experienced by the sentient soul. The heat, in one 
sense is, and in another is not, in the fire. ' Redness as 
we experience it, is quite different from its external 
cause. 

Now, while the soul is remote from matter, it is not 
remote from itself. While it does not perceive directly 
the attributes of material things, but only sensations 
that they cause, it knows directly and immediately its 
own attributes, thought, feeling, and volition. Also in 
the soul we come nearer to substance than we do any- 
where else. The substance of the soul is the self or ego 
that acts or suffers. Of this I or ego we are directly 
conscious. ' < Not only are we conscious of the varying 
states and conditions, but we know them to be our own 
states and conditions; i. e., each individual observer 
knows his changing individual states to belong to his 
individual self, or to himself, the individual. The states 
we know as varying and transitory. The self we know 
as unchanged and permanent. ' And when the powers 
of the soul are quiescent, when no particular thought, 
feeling, or volition is prominent, we are still conscious 
of the substance or ego and its possibilities and suscepti- 
bilities to act and suffer. This knowledge of the soul 
is surer than any we can have of material things. 

We know God by his attributes The Deity is 

the Being that is infinite, eternal, absolute, all-power- 
ful, all-knowing, all-good, all-loving. These are some 
of the attributes of the Supreme Being. Let us dwell 
for a moment upon each that we may have a fuller and 
clearer conception of the Divine nature. 

We know infinite being is. — 2 < The thought of in- 
finity is not associated in the religious consciousness 

i Pres. Porter. 

2 Enc. Brit., Vol. xxiii, p. 246. 

19 



with thai of Deity, except where reflection is some- 
what highly developed. ' Too many think of God as a 
great man with haloed head, seated somewhere on a 
throne. The sooner we abandon such crude concep- 
tions, the better it will be for us and the religion we 
profess. We stand face to face with an infinity. 
What we call space is boundless. We know by the 
reason that it has no limits. We apprehend though we 
cannot comprehend it. What is this immensity that 
confronts us? It is no other than the infinite extension 
of a substance or being; that Being is God. Let us 
then learn to reverently think of the vast space infini- 
tude that folds the forms of all finite things around, as 
one attribute or aspect of the Deity. 

We know eternal being is.-We stand face to face 
with an eternity. By the reason we know that duration 
always has been and always will be, that it never had a 
beginning and will never have an end, that the being 
that is infinitely extended has eternally endured and 
will endure forevermore. What is time? It is the 
eternal duration of that substance or being that is infi- 
nitely extended. It is an attribute of the infinite One. 
With Arnobius we say that the space and place of all 
things is God. And with the celebrated English philos- 
opher and divine, Dr. Samuel Clarke, we affirm that all 
things in the universe are either substances or attributes. 
Extension and duration, as such simply, are not sub- 
stances, therefore they must be attributes, and attri- 
butes of a Being who is infinite and eternal. 

We know absolute being" is — The absolute One 
1 < is that which is not dependent on any other being for 
its existence and activity. ' By the reason we know 
that the being, two of whose attributes are infinite ex- 

i Pres. Porter. 

20 



tension and eternal duration, can have neither equal nor 
greater. Its existence is not derived from nor sup- 
ported by any other. It is complete in itself and inde- 
pendent. In a previous paragraph we had occasion to 
distinguish the material thing and its attributes from the 
sensations they produce in us and to give instances in 
which the sensation does not resemble the external 
cause. Now while it is true that the report in con- 
sciousness does not always resemble the thing outside 
of consciousness, yet by the reason we know there is a 
very, very wide field of knowledge in which the corre- 
spondence holds. A ball in the world of material things 
will report itself as a ball and not a cube, in the world 
of sensations. Two and two make four in the 'noume- 
nal realm as well as in the ^phenomenal. We are cer- 
tain that along with much else the forms of material 
objects, their kinds, their position and molar motion, 
their magnitude and number, their space and time rela- 
tions, infinity, eternity and other attributes of the abso- 
lute Being are as we perceive them to be. 

Omnipotent being" is. — 3< Scientific inquiry, pro- 
ceeding from its own resources and borrowing no hint 
from theology, leads to the conclusion that the universe 
is the manifestation of a Divine Power that is in no wise 
indentifiable with the universe, or interpretable in terms 
of blind force or of any other phenomenal manifestation. ' 
Power is another predicate of the self-existent One. 
This might is manifested in all the manifold movements 
of the material universe, and is infinite and eternal. 
True, the reason cannot perceive the infinity of the ma- 

i The Universe of realities outside of the soul. 

2 The world of sensations or experiences within the soul, and 
which are also realities. 

3 Prof. Fiske, Cosmic Phil. Vol. ii.,p. 467. 

21 



terial universe so certainly as that of space, for we can 
think of the awful regions beyond the vision of the tele- 
scope as unpeopled with planets and suns. But it is 
not a rational conception. It is not reasonable to sup- 
pose that only the relatively small region within our 
ken is utilized. The true thought is that all space is 
full of energy, and occupied by worlds and systems of 
worlds. Indeed, such occupancy is necessary to the 
stability of the part of the universe that we know. So 
power is co-extensive with space. 

It is also co-existent with duration. We can think 
of the time anterior to the present material universe 
as a vacant eternity when there were no heavenly 
bodies, no energizing in space, nothing doing. But this 
view does not accord with reason, nor comport with the 
diligence displayed everywhere in the known universe. 
We are impelled to think that power as well as space 
and time, is infinite and eternal. It is an attribute. It 
belongs to that substance that is infinitely extended and 
that has eternally endured. It can belong to no other. 
Infinite operation, as well as infinite extension and eter- 
nal duration, is an attribute of the absolute One. 

Furthermore, this power must be volitional. Its 
source must be in will. We must believe that all move- 
ment is caused and has its source somewhere. In con- 
sciousness, we know our own will as a source of power 
and activity. We do not know, nor can we conceive, 
of any original cause or spring of action other than will. 
Therefore we are bound to believe that the source of all 
the activities of nature is an infinite Will, the Will of 
God. 

Omniscient being is. — All are aware that adapta- 
tions and contrivances abound in nature. Everywhere 

22 



in the world are seen the marks of intending thought. 
Intelligence is manifested in all things from an animal- 
cule in a drop of water to a stellar-system whose home 
is the vast ocean of space. We see intelligent move- 
ment and results in the universe and are bound to infer 
an intelligent power as the original cause of it all. Ev- 
olution instead of interfering with the doctrine of design 
gives us an enlarged conception of the power and wis- 
dom of the Designer. Comte's saying that the heavens 
declare no other glory than that of Hipparchos and 
Newton is considered irrational by the true philosopher 
or scientific observer. He affirms with David, that 
'the heavens declare the glory of God, ' and with the 
modern poet, that 'an undevout astronomer is mad.' 
There l \s one universal cause, the infinite and eternal 
seat of all power, an omniscient Mind ordering all things 
for ends selected with perfect wisdom. ' 

The cause of all is good The world, the product 

of God, cannot indeed be truly painted only in the rosy 
tints of a summer morning. There are dark places and 
wintry storms. But these are not without palliation. 
Pains of want help work the animal organism. Hun- 
ger, thirst, and fatigue herald needs, and move and 
guide to their satisfaction. Sufferings that spring from 
troubled relations between organism and its environ- 
ment, such as ungenial seasons, desolating winds and 
floods, an atmosphere charged with germs of disease, a 
frost that creeps into the heart of the old, a marsh 
vapor that spreads the fever-bed for the young, are 
only occasional results of that system of physical laws, 
which prepares the theatre of animal life, and fosters 
sentient existence. The earthquake, volcano, geyser, 

i. James Martineau. 

23 



tornado, ''the untimely frost that nips every growing 
promise, the sudden avalanche that buries the growing 
fields and the warm life of the valley in its snows, ' oc- 
cur in harmony with atmospheric and meteoric laws 
without which life is not possible. These catastrophes 
are infrequent. Their harm is incidental. The laws 
themselves are benevolent. And while they are death- 
dealing for only a moment, they are life-giving forever- 
more. 

Of the predaceous habit of animals much can be said 
in extenuation. 1 'It is a great exaggeration to affirm 
that animated nature is a scene of universal war. ' 'The 
herbivorous families have no victims. ' The carnivor- 
ous tribes are not omnivorous. They are foes to only 
a few species. Their temper is compatible with gentle 
affections and tender cares toward their kind. Sharp 
and quick extinction, instead of pining away by exhaus- 
tion, is an economy of pain to the sufferer. Lacking 
imagination, animals are not tortured with much dread 
of an onset. Nature, in her predatory tribes and carri- 
on-feeders, has appointed a sanitary commission, with- 
out which her streams would be poisoned, and her 
forests and plains, as noisome as the recent battlefield. 

Human suffering serves to awaken the conscience, to 
open the affections, and to escape the slavery of sel- 
fishness. It is a school of patience, self-control, forti- 
tude, trust in God, the tenderest piety. The greatest 
and best of earth must be sought among those who 
have passed through the fire of affliction. Any form of 
permanently crippled life is usually richly compensated. 
The pain of dissatisfaction with present attainment is 
an incentive to higher achievement, and a condition of 
progress. 

iJames Martineau. 

24 



Of moral evil the Deity is the source of only its pos- 
sibility. In man God would have a creature in the 
likeness of His own holiness. Therefore He must needs 
endow him with will. There can be no virtue or good 
character without right choice. There can be no right 
choice without the possibility of wrong choice. Sin 
with all its woe is man's perversion of a noble power 
given for a holy purpose. Foreseeing sin, the Creator 
is not culpable unless he fails at last to bring his way- 
ward child, chastened and disciplined, to himself, never 
more to go astray. 

In judging the world we must look mainly, not at 
some particular part or momentary condition, but at the 
great end toward which it is tending, the development 
and perfection of the human soul. In judging the oak 
we look not at the acorn but at the forest of centuries. 
There is in nature a manifest desire to bless. The 
usual aspect of her face is one of composure and joy. 
There is in the world a great and growing preponder- 
ance of good over evil. Benevolence is slowly con- 
quering selfishness. Willingness to live proves the 
beneficence of life. Clinging to existence is well-nigh 
universal. 'Few, 1 indeed, among the tenants of this 
teeming world elect to perish.' Most of the misery 
that is mortal to these is self-made. 'There is in the 
world a power that makes for righteousness. ' 2 Con- 
science announces a perfect Being ' 'pervading the uni- 
verse with Holy law. ' 

He is a God of love As such He is immediately 

known to the soul by feeling. He reveals himself di- 
rectly to the hearts of those who serve Him. The 

i James Martineau. 
2 Matt. Arnold. 

25 



Spirit of God is ever over, around, and within us. Our 
souls are ' 'permeable and inspirable by the Almighty. ' 
2 There comes a time to some, to many, when God 
draws near with such reality, glory, and power that 
the soul is filled, amazed, transported.' *'I know, and 
ten thousand witnesses join me in the affirmation, that 
there is a distinctive experience of feeling and thought 
belonging to a Christian nature which results directly 
from the communion of God's mind with our minds.' 
3 'To many in their favored moments, I have no doubt, 
the being and presence of God are as evident as that of 
the sun in the heavens. ' We know that when duty is 
faithfully done, and virtuous resolve sincerely made 
through love and obedience to God, He manifests His 
love and approbation to the soul. 'If a man love me 
he will keep my words: and my Father will love Him, 
and we will come unto him, and make our abode with 
him. ' 'Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see 
God. ' All who comply with these conditions can have 
this knowledge. To some it has never come. To 
others it is as the dim twilight. To yet others it is as 
the clear shining of the noonday. The immensity of 
God is known by the reason, His quality by feeling. 
2< Scientists are attempting to come to God headfirst. 
They must ccme to him heart first. Then let their 
heads interpret what they have found.' The heart 
finds that the Divine Spirit is a Being of goodness, ten- 
derness and love. Moreover, in the lowly life of the 
loving Nazarene we have an image of the love of God. 
And the most loving and beloved disciple's declaration 
is: 'God is love 

iHorace Bushnell. 
2Henry Ward Beecher. 
3Mark Hopkins. 

26 



He is one only — ' 'All things in the universe are 
evidently of a piece.' 2< The laws of the earth are the 
laws of the universe.' From gravitation, light, mete- 
orites, and the earth's satellite, we learn that there is 
oneness of law through space. 3 'Nature constitutes 
throughout one intellectual organism. ' 'All 3 the while 
every particle in the solar system is at play with those 
of Sirius and of stars invisible beyond; and through the 
4 inter-stellar spaces an ether spreads whose undulations, 
carrying messages from system to system, assume a 
language common to all. The light which started on its 
way to us before there was a human eye is broken by 
the prism into the same scale of colors as that which is 
nearest and newest born; and the vibrations in its spec- 
trum repeat the very changes which our experiments 
produce from incandescent chemical elements; indica- 
ting that not our mechanical workshop and our observ- 
atory only, but our laboratory too, would be at home in 
any world. ' The contents of space are woven together 
by a network of universal media. And a running 
thread i f progressive geologic and biologic history is 
manifest in nature, which blends its successive acts 
into one drama, and makes our knowledge of it, ' mot 
a miscellany of memories, but an articulated intellectual 
organism. ' 

This oneness of the universe, in harmony with the 

highest utterances of prophetic vision, evidences the 

unity of God. 6 <Holy Spirit is simply the Scriptural 

name for God when God is in inward communion with 

iDavid Hume. 

2Prof. Dana. 

3James Martineau. 

4Between the stars. 

5White. glowing, or luminous with intense heat. 

6Rev. John Hamilton Thorn. 

27 



us, when He moves and is felt to move our souls. In 
our souls He is at all times, but He is known as the 
Holy Spirit only when all our veils and alienations be- 
ing removed we consciously meet Him. ' 

God is a person. — We do not mean that he has a 
body like the human. However great, such form can- 
not be co-extensive with the infinite One. Evidently 
the Divine Nature has a material side as well as a spir- 
itual. But properly speaking His Personality is not the 
former, nor both together, but the latter only. The 
human person is the human spirit. So the Divine Per- 
son is the Divine Spirit. Personality ''involves self- 
conscious being, self-regulated intelligence, and self- 
determined activity. ' These characteristics and others 
such as benevolence, goodness, and love, belong to the 
all-pervading Spirit. When 2 <so severe a mathemati- 
cian as Euler' suggests 2 <that the essence of gravitation 
must be inclination and desire'; when 2< an astronomer 
so exact and physicist of range so large as Sir J. Her- 
schel,' detects 2 'in the sense of effort the prototype of 
the casual idea'; when 2< a physiologist so Democritian 
as Haeckel' is 2 'obliged to charge his atoms with desire 
and aversion, sensation and will, to fit them for their 
work'; they are taking steps toward knowledge of a 
Personal God. An eternal Personal Power is no more 
mysterious or difficult of comprehension than an eternal 
blind force. And it is not rational to believe that any 
power other than Personal has evolved the utilities and 
adaptations of nature and the body and spirit of man. 

i Henry Calderwood. 
2james Martineau. 
3Primary form. 

28 



The universe is an infinite brain. — In the human 
encephalon the multitudinous nerve-cells are grouped in 
clusters as the stars, and have in millions of nerve- 
fibres their lines of communication. Scientists say that 
the 'molecules of different material bodies may be re- 
garded as composed of several atoms separated from 
each other by distances as much greater than the di- 
mensions of the atoms as the inter-stellar spaces are 
greater than the stars, and that if these molecules could 
be presented to our view they would appear as sorts of 
constellations. 2 'In the ultimate particles of matter as 
in the immensity of the heavens central points of action' 
are '^distributed in presence of each other.' 3< If, then, 
the invisible molecular structure and movement do but 
repeat in little those of the heavens, what hinders us 
from inverting the analogy, and saying that the or- 
dered heavens repeat the rhythm of the cerebral parti- 
cles?' It is reasonable to believe that the infinite spirit 
has a body, that the matter of the universe is the organ 
of the Ever-living Mind. And we say with James 
Martineau, 'Lift up your eyes, and look upon the arch 
of night as the brow of the Eternal, its constellations as 
the molecules of the universal consciousness, its space 
as their possibility of change, and the ethereal waves 
as the afferents and efferents of Omniscient Thought, ' 
and your conception of the relation of God to the uni- 
verse cannot be far from true. 

The Deity is immanent in the world It is 

wrong to conceive of Him as 4 <an absentee God, sitting 

idle, ever since the first Sabbath, at the outside of his 

iGroups of atoms. 
2 Ampere. 

3J<imes Martineau. 
4Thomas Carlisle. 

2Q 



universe, and 'seeing it go. ' ' This fair universe, were 
it in the meanest province thereof, is in very deed the 
star-domed City of God.' 

Matter is eternal Plato held that it has existed 

from eternity with God. To hold that it has been cre- 
ated ex-nihilo is unreasonable and puerile. The uni- 
verse as a whole has always been. There never was 
a time when the night-heavens were not gemmed with 
stars. 

God has ever been working 1 We cannot help 

asking with Origen and others 2< if the world had its 
beginning in time, what was God doing before the 
world began? For it is at once impious and absurd to 
say that the nature of God is inactive and immovable, 
or to suppose that goodness at one time did not do good 
and omnipotence at one time did not exercise its power. ' 
We hold with Origen 2 <that this was not the first world 
God made; that there never was a first, and never will 
be a last. ' In the history of the universe there has 
been an eternal succession of cycles, chaos evolving 
into cosmos, and cosmos dissolving into chaos, through- 
out the immeasurable ages of the past. Science teaches 
that from the final catastrophe of a preceding epoch of 
planetary evolution, has emerged our present solar sys- 
tem; and that at the outermost verge of its methods 
it catches a 3 'glimpse of a stupendous rhythmical alterna- 
tion between eras of evolution and eras of dissolution, 
succeeding each other without vestiges of a beginning 
and without prospect of an end.' God's working is 
eternal as His being. 

iThomas Carlisle. 
20rigen, De Principiis. 
3Prof. Fiske. 

30 



Matter is in a constant flux — ' < All things flow. ' 
Matter like an eternal river rolls on forever without dim- 
inution. 

Science discovers only laws — 2 < When we 
have made out by careful and repeated observation that 
certain events always take place in the same order, we 
speak of the truth thus discovered as a law of nature. 
Thus it is a law of nature that anything heavy falls to 
the ground if it is unsupported. ' 

2 'Laws are not causes.' 2 < In fact, everything 
that we know about the powers and properties of na- 
tural objects and about the order of nature may proper- 
ly be termed a law of nature. But it is desirable to 
remember that which is very often forgotten, that the 
laws of nature are not the causes of the order of nature, 
but only our way of stating as much as we have made 
out of that order. Stones do not fall to the ground in 
consequence of the law just stated, as people sometimes 
carelessly say; but the law is the way of asserting that 
which invariably happens when heavy bodies at the 
surface of the earth are free to move. ' 

Laws are methods. — 3 <They are the observed reg- 
ular sequence of events. ' The mission of science is to 
show us how things are done, not who does them. 
Strictly speaking, Science investigates, not the what or 
the who, but the how. And when she pushes her re- 
searches as far as possible, when she pursues generali- 
zation until she traces all phenomena to their ultimate 
seat, she reverently pauses, and acknowledges with true 
Religion the presence of a mysterious Power 4< to whose 

i Heraclitus. 

2 Prof. Huxley. 

3 Dr. Hodge. 

4 Prof. Fiske. 

3i 



eternal decrees we must submit, to whose dispensations 
we must resign ourselves, and upon whose constancy 
we may implicitly rely. ' There is conflict between 
Science and Mythology. But only the superficial are 
disturbed with fears of antagonism between Science and 
true Religion. 

Natural law is Divine method. — Nature's laws 
are God's ways of working in the world. More and 
more we are coming to see the Divine in the natural. 
Too much has the theologian 1 'thrust back Divine action 
to some nameless point in the past eternity and left 
nothing for God to do in the present world. ' For long 
theology has made the mistake of distinguishing natural 
law from Divine action. They are identical. And ' 'the 
tendency of modern scientific inquiry, whether working 
in the region of psychology or in that of transcendental 
physics, is to abolish this distinction, and to regard 
natural law as merely a synonym of Divine action. ' 
1 ' The law of gravitation is but an expression of a par- 
ticular mode of Divine action. And what is thus true 
of one law is true of all laws. ' 

Evolution is established. — 3 * We regard the law of 

evolution as throughly established. It is only necessary 

to conceive it clearly, to accept it unhesitatingly.' 

3 < The consensus of scientific and philosophical opinion is 

already well-nigh if not wholly complete. ' 3 'If there 

are still lingering cases of dissent among thinking men, 

it is only because such do not yet conceive it clearly. ' 

3 ' The day is past when evolution might be regarded as 

a school of thought. We might as well talk of gravi- 

tationist as of evolutionist. ' 

i Prof. Fiske. 

2The most subtile forces in nature. 

3President Leconte. 

32 



Evolution is a universal law. — Laplace somewhere 
says that Newton was singularly fortunate in this- 1 < that 
there was but one law of gravitation to be discovered, ' 
implying that his ' transcendent achievements ' might 
be equaled by later workers if nature only had ! < more 
hidden treasures comparable in worth and beauty to 
that with which she rewarded the patient sagacity of 
the great astronomer. ' But ! l we now know that other 
laws remained behind, as yet others still remain unre- 
vealed, that equal the law of gravitation in universality 
and coyness of detection. Such is the law of evolution. 
It 2< affects the whole realm of nature and every depart- 
ment of science. ' 2 < The same law which controls the 
development of an egg ' presides 2 <over the creation of 
worlds. ' The law of gravitation is the universal method 
of 2 < sustentation. ' The law of evolution is the univer- 
sal method of creation. 

Evolution is God's method As 2 < the law of grav- 
itation is nought else than the mode of operation of the 
Divine energy in sustaining the cosmos ' 2< so the law 
of evolution is nought else than the mode of operation 
of the same Divine energy in developing the cosmos. ' 
The latter is stated thus by Mr. Herbert Spencer. 
'Evolution is an integration of matter and concomitant 
dissipation of motion; during which the matter passes 
from an indefinite, incoherent homogeneity to a definite, 
coherent heterogeneity; and during which the retained 
motion undergoes a parallel transformation. ' 

For example, the integration of millions of particles of 
aqueous vapour into a cloud is attended by a loss of that 
kind of molecular motion known as heat. Further inte- 
gration of aqueous vapour into liquid rain is attended 

iProf. Fiske. 

2 President Leconte. 

33 



by still further loss of heat by radiation. ' ' The deposit 
of sediment at the mouth of a river is attended by the 
loss of the molar motions which brought its constituent 
particles from the upland regions which the river drains; 
and the hardening of the sediment into rock is a change 
to a state of aggregation in which, along with greater 
cohesion, the particles possess less mobility than before, 
in like manner the hardening of an igneous rock is ef- 
fected by cooling, which implies the loss of internal 
motion. Indeed the phenomena of heat and cold exhib- 
it enmasse an illustration of the general principle. The 
progress of any mass of matter from a gaseous to a 
liquid, and thence to a solid state, is attended by the 
continuous dissipation of molecular motion. ' 

1 < Finally, if we consider the case of organisms we find 
tiat the incorporation of food into the substance of the 
tissues is constantly accompanied by the giving out of 
motion in some form of organic activity.' In many 
cases, as when sediment is solidified into rock, or water 
converted into ice, the amount of retained motion is so 
small that much complexity in the structure of the object 
evolved is impossible. But in the evolution of a large 
and slowly cooling Sun-System the great amount of 
motion retained for ages in the planets admits of wonder- 
ful diversity and complexity in the structure of the 
object evolved. And be it remembered that all which 
happens in nature has one kind of cause; that the uni- 
verse of originated things is the product of the Supreme 
Mind; that the multiplicity of diversified processes and 
objects, included in the great subject of evolution, have 
their source in the Divine Will. 

God's method of world-building* is evolution. 

The sun was 1 < once a mass of nebulous vapour, extend- 
i Ptof. Fiske. 

34 



ing in every direction far beyond the present limits of 
the solar system, ' and pulsating with currents of motion 
that were ' 'determined hither and thither according to 
local circumstance, now aiding and now opposing one 
another. ' This ' ' indefiniteness of movement ' finally 
ended 1 'in a definite rotation in one direction, ' and the 
mass became ' « an oblate spheroid, flattened at the poles 
and bulging at the equator. ' The nebula, all the while 
radiating heat and contracting, l * continued to rotate 
with ever-increasing velocity'; 'its poles became more 
and more flattened;' 'its equatorial zone protruded more 
and more, until at last the centrifugal tendency at the 
equator became greater than the force cf gravity at that 
place, ' and ' ' the bulging equatorial zone, ' - « was left 
behind as a detached ring girdling the retreating central 
mass. ' This ring, being subjected in all directions to 
forces that were not absolutely symmetrical, forthwith 
broke into a host of fragments of unequal dimensions 
which as so many satellites surrounded the equator, 
following each other almost in the same orbit and revolv- 
ing in the direction of the solar rotation. Each large 
fragment by its gravitative force retarded the smaller one 
before it and accelerated the smaller one behind it until 
at last two or three fragments caught up with each 
other, and coalesced. ! ' This process went on until all 
the fragments were finally agglomerated into a spher- 
oidal body, ' and Neptune, the earliest evolved planet of 
the solar system was the result. 1 ' In like manner were 
formed all the planets, one after another. ' l ' And from 
the planets' equatorial belts, ' still gaseous, l ' were sim- 
ilarly formed the satellites.' In confirmation of this 
method of world-building we find that the planets are 
i Prof. Fiske. 

35 



all oblate spheroids; that as shown by spectros- 
copic observation they are in the main ' < composed of 
similar chemical elements; that their orbits are '< nearly 
concentric, and nearly in a plane with the solar equator'; 
that they revolve around the sun from west to east in 
the same direction that the sun rotates on his axis; 
that, with the exception Uranus, whose retrograde 
movement has its explanation, they rotate in the di- 
rection of the sun's axial rotation; that ' < every satellite 
revolves about its primary in the direction of the pri- 
mary's axial rotation, and in a plane but little inclined 
to the primary's equator'; that those planets in which 
the centrifugal force bears a high ratio to gravitation have 
more satellites than the others; that the outer planets, 
being formed from larger ancestral rings, are in general 
larger than the inner; that the larger planets as Jupiter 
and Saturn, cooling more slowly than the smaller, are 
now * < prodigiously hot'; that the smaller planets as the 
earth and Mars, cooling more quickly than the larger, 
now have <a moderate temperature'; that ''the break- 
ing up of the zone of asteroids' by the powerful attrac- 
tion of Jupiter ' < occurred in the only part of the system 
where such an event was likely to occur'; that Saturn 
is the one planet still girdled by rings that are appar- 
ently continuous; that comets are nebulous in constitu- 
tion and come chiefly from 1 < high solar latitudes ' where 
shreds of the primitive nebula would be most likely to 
be left behind by the integrating mass; and that as re- 
vealed by both telescopic and spectroscopic research, 
the universe contains cosmic matter in different stages 
of evolution, from a primitive gaseous nebula to a high- 
ly developed world system like the solar. ' < The com- 
mon orgin of the planets from the sun's equator ' *<is 
i Prof' Fiske. 

36 



sustained by all the facts within our ken, and invalid- 
ated by none. ' And ' < this gigantic process of plane- 
tary evolution, in which the integration of matter and 
concomitant dissipation of molecular motion, kept up 
during untold millions of ages, has brought about the 
gradual transformation of a relatively homogeneous, in- 
definite, and incoherent mass of nebular vapour into a 
decidedly heterogeneous, definite, and coherent system 
of worlds. ' Note further that the genetic nebula was 
full of motion when evolution began. Within it a pow- 
er was energizing. What then is this wondrous Dy- 
namis that manifests Itself in such stupendous and har- 
monious activity, that changes chaos into cosmos, that 
causes such a marvellous metamorphosis? It is none 
other than the One of boundless might, whose work 
throughout the past eternity has been building worlds, 
and when their usefulness is done, destioying them, and 
making out of the same material more to serve His holy 
ends. 

The account of creation in Genesis has a Baby- 
lonian origin. — 2t At a distance of six or seven thous- 
and years from the age in which we live, we can still 
catch a glimpse of three or four civilizations, or, to put 
it better, three or four great human hives, having their 
regular rules, their mode of life, their language, and their 
religious rites.' These ancient societies 2 ' laid the first 
bases of the human edifice', and made many of the 
material discoveries. One of these early centers of 
civilization, Chaldaea or Babylonia, inoculated the 
Hebrews with a host of ideas, which, with some mod- 
ification, they transmitted to us. 

It is now known that Babylonian civilization extends 

i Prof. Fiske. 
2 Ernest Renan. 

37 



]< back into a dim antiquity;' that it is l< as ancient as 
that of Egypt and not less original in its character'; that 
Babylon was the ' < home of a venerable learning and 
culture'; that the 2 Semites ' < were not the first occu- 
pants of the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates'; that 
they were preceded by a people called Accadians, who 
were in no wise related to the Semites; that the Acca- 
dians spoke an aglutinative speech, resembling ' < in its 
structure the languages of the modern Fins or Turks'; 
that to the Accadians the l 'beginnings of Chaldaean cul- 
ture and civilization were due;' that the Semites gradu- 
ally superseded the Accadians, and founded a dynasty in 
Babylonia as early as 3750 B. C. ; that the Accadians 
were the teachers and masters of their conquerors in 
writing, literature, and other elements of culture; lf that 
the cuneiform system of writing was not the invention, 
but the inheritance, of the Semite Babylonians and As- 
syrians'; that a '< large proportion of the deitiesof the 
Babylonian faith had their first origin in the beliefs of 
the Accadian people'; that the mythology of the Acca- 
dians 3 < passed into that of the Semitic Babylonians and 
Semitic Assyrians. 

Now the Biblical account of creation originated with 
the Accadian Babylonians. From them it passed with 
some modification to' the Semitic Babylonians. From 
these the Semite Abraham, the Semitic Assyrians or 
Ninevites, and the Semitic Hebrews during their cap- 
tivity in Babylon, all derived it. 

The primeval home of the Hebrews was in the valley 
of the Euphrates. Abraham, the father of the Israelite 
race, came from Ur of the Chaldees in Babylonia, and 

1 Prof. Savce. 

2The great race family to which the Hebrews belong. 

3 Enc. Brit. 

38 



must have carried with him into Canaan the ideas of 
the nation from which he sprang, just as he and others 
brought with them Babylonian names, and gave them 
to places in Palestine. 

That the Babylonians had a story of creation from 
which the Hebrews derived theirs is known from the 
fact, that from the ruins of Assur-bani-pal's library in 
Nineveh has been taken such an account with a pro- 
fessed Babylonian origin. The writing is in cuneiform 
characters on terra-cotta tablets now in the British 
Museum and ] ' arranged by Mr. George Smith en valid 
internal grounds in an order corresponding to the cosmog- 
ony in Genesis. ' The ' « Babylonian parallels are very 
striking, and would probably be very much more so if 
the tablets were complete,' says Mr. George Smith. 
1 The story, so far as 1 can judge from the fragments, 
agrees generally with the account of the creation in the 
book of Genesis, but shows traces of having originally 
included very much more matter.' 2< There is how- 
ever fair reason to suppose that there was a close 
agreement in subjects and order between the texts of 
the Chaldaean legend and Genesis.' 2< The events of 
each of the days of Genesis were recorded on a separate 
tablet, and the numbers of the tablets generally follow- 
ed in the same order as the days of creation in Genesis. 
2 * The fifth tablet commences with the statement that 
the previous creations were delightful, agreeing with the 
oft-repeated statement of Genesis after each act of 
creative power that God saw thatjt was good.' 2 ' It 
appears that the Chaldaean record contained the review 
and expression of satisfaction at the head of each tablet, 
while the Hebrew has it at the close of each act. ' 



1 Enc. Brit. 

2 George Smith. 



39 



Here the difference is one of detail only. Now state- 
ments are numerous on the tablets themselves that they 
are not the originals but copies of much older Babylonian 
records. These originals Mr. George Smith places as 
far back as 2,000 B. C, and thinks they may date 
further back than this. However they told a story 
made up mainly of ancient Accadian elements and were 
conveyed more than 600B. C. from Babylon to Nineveh. 

The Semitic 1( Assyrians were a nation of warriors 
and traders rather than of students; their literature was 
for the most part an exotic, a mere imitation of Babylon- 
ian culture. ' Semitic Assyria or Nineveh was originally 
a 2 ' province or dependency of Babylon, ' though long 
afterwards she became her mistress. 2 ' Not only was 
Babylonia the mother country, as the tenth chapter of 
Genesis explicitly states, but the religion and culture, 
the literature and the characters in which it was con- 
tained, the arts and the sciences of the Assyrians were 
derived from their southern neighbors.' It is said that 
Assur-bani-pal was a genuine lover of books; and 
that when rebellion had been quelled in Babylonia, and 
the Babylonian cities had been taken by storm, the 
spoil that was most acceptable to this Assyrian king 
were the written volumes their libraries contained. 
1 < No present could be sent him which he valued more 
than some old text from Erech or Uror Babylon.' 

With this early home of the story of creation the ac- 
count in Genesis has historic connection not only, as 
we have seen, through Abraham; but also through the 
Hebrews during the Babylonish captivity. The lan- 
guage of the Babylonians was more nearly related to that 

1 Prof. Sayce. 
2Enc. Brit. 

40 



of the Jewish exiles than to any other member of the 
Semitie family of speech. ' It was not hard for a Jew 
to learn to understand a Babylonian. Also the libraries 
and ancient literature of Chaldaea were at that time 
open to the study and use of the Jew. So the cosmolog- 
ical theories of the Babylonians must have made at that 
period a deep and lasting impression upon the mind of 
the Hebrews. And, then if not before, they took the 
story of creation, condensed it, simplified it, eliminated 
its polytheism, and made the legend more potent for 
good. 

1 < The chief differences ' between the two accounts 
Arise from the polytheism of Babylonia. ' The words 
< God created, ' 2 * substituted for ten-thousand capricious 
fancies, ' was indeed a great advance. 2 < The great truth 
of the unity of the world and of the absolute solidarity 
of all its various parts which polytheism failed to appre- 
ciate, is at least clearly perceived in ' the Biblical nar- 
rative 2 < in which all parts of nature bring forth by the 
action of the same thought and by the effect of the 
same verb.' 

There is no need of trying* to harmonize the ac- 
count of creation in Genesis with modern science. 

That the former 3 < is not in strict and detailed accordance 
with the teachings of ' the latter must be admitted by 
every one. And all attempts to force it into such ac- 
cord, torturing it into a scientific primer exact to our 
latest knowledge, making it anticipate our Astronomy 
and Geology, are futile and mischievous. They fail to 
convince independent inquirers, limit our thoughts of 
nature to the crude conceptions of primitive thinkers, 

i Enc. Brit. Vol. Vi. P. 446. 

2 Ernest Renan. 

3 Marcus Dods. 

41 



1 < unduly prolong the strife between Scripture and 
science, putting the question on a false issue'; and 
1 < they do violence to Scripture, fostering a style of 
interpretation by which the text is 'made to teach l 'what 
ever the interpreter desires. ' 

Kepler says that it is for the common advantage of 
both theologians and men of science 2 <to conciliate the 
finger and the tongue of God, his works and his word. ' 
God has uttered no word that contradicts his work. 
His tongue and finger, if we may so speak, are in per- 
fect accord. The Creator alone is the author of the 
record written in the rocks and stars. He is also the 
source of that natural thirst and love for truth that have 
in all ages moved men to seek and record it. But the 
creation legend is the expression not only of the Divine 
impulse, but also of human ignorance. The compiler of 
the book of Genesis, living in an unscientific age, and 
having no supernatural revelation or inspiration, but 
drawing from the rich mythic lore of Babylonia his 
fatherland, has, with what monotheistic and other im- 
provement he was able to make, transmitted to us the 
Biblical account of creation. When he utters his great 
truth, < God created, ' science has no word of opposition. 
But when he inculcates the Babylonian primeval watery 
chaos; the existence of light and vegetation before the 
sun; the creation of sun, moon, and stars subsequent to 
the creation of this earth: the firmament with its fixed 
lights: the old Ptolemaic theory throughout; and other 
fanciful methods of manufacture; Science says, I show 
you a more perfect way. To us to-day the universe 
of God speaks more intelligently than it did to the an- 
cient Jews and primitive Babylonians, Let us not 

i Marcus Dods. 

2 Frederick Wright. 

42 



blend past ignorance with present knowledge. Let us 
no longer cumber our Christianity with the erroneous 
ideas of pre-scientific ages concerning the Divine meth- 
ods of creation. But let us accept evolution as the 
subline revelation of His almighty and everlasting ways. 

God's method of mineral making is evolution. 

We may fairly suppose that when our earth began its 
independent career as a planet the temperature of its 
1 < surface cannot have been lower than the temperature 
of the solar surface at the present time, which is esti- 
mated at three million degrees Fahrenheit, or some 
fourteen thousand times hotter than boiling water.' 
At such a temperature there could have been no for- 
mation of chemical compounds. ' The earth's surface 
was then ' < composed of only uncombined elements of 
free oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon, sulphur, etc., 
and of iron, copper, sodium, and other metals in a state 
of vapour. With the lowering of this primitive temper- 
ature by radiation chemical combinations of greater and 
greater heterogeneity became gradually possible. First 
appeared the stable binary compounds such as water 
and the inorganic acids and bases. After still further 
lowering of temperature some of the less stable com- 
pounds such as salts and double salts were enabled to 
appear on the scene. At a later date came the still more 
heterogeneous and unstable organic acids and ethers. '■ 
When the requisite coolness was reached, substances 
having affinities with each other, and being in juxtapo- 
sition, united chemically and produced all the innumer- 
able mineral forms which make up the crust of the globe. 
i. Prof. Fiske. 

43 



God's method of generating life is evolution. 

1 < There is nothing more certain than that there was a 
time when there was no life upon the earth. ' ! * It is 
conceded impossible for life to have existed in the neb- 
ula or in the molten condition of the earth preceding 
the formation of a crust. ' What then can we say in 
explanation of the genesis of life on the globe? By 
different thinkers two theories are entertained which we 
may call the germ theory and the dynamic or evolution 
theory. In accordance with the first, we cannot believe 
that the Deity created, outside and without the use of 
physical laws, either one, a few, or many germs, and 
then placed them in nature to develop. One can see 
that it would be more natural and easier to generate life 
within the web of natural forces. Protoplasm must 
have arisen in the following manner. Just as 
oxygen and hydrogen united to form water, and carbon- 
ic acid and ammonia united to produce carbonate of 
ammonia, 2 < so also carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, and 
oxygen, when brought into juxtaposition, united ' 2 « in- 
to higher and higher multiples as fast as the diminishing 
temperature would let them, until at last living proto- 
plasm was the result of the long continued process. ' 
Here we catch a glimpse of the way in which the trans- 
ition from not life to life must have been made. The 
association of vital phenomena with the wonderfully 
complex chemical compound called protoplasm, com- 
posed chiefly of the elements named above, is indeed a 
mystery. But it is not the only mystery met with 
in this realm. 2< It is equally mysterious that starch or 
sugar or alcohol should manifest properties not displayed 

i. James H. Chapin. 

2. Prof. Fiske. 

3. The so-called physical basis of life. 

44 



Dy their elements, oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon, when 
uncombined. It is equally mysterious that a silvery 
metal and a suffocating gas should by their union be- 
come transformed into table-salt.' ''One result of 
every chemical synthesis is the manifestation of a new 
set of properties. ' All life on this mundane sphere is 
manifested in a material organism. Protoplasm is the 
primitive living body from which all others have been 
developed. And we can conceive of no more reasonable, 
natural, and Divine method of its creation and inspira- 
tion with life than according to the evolution theory as 
indicated above. 

God's method of plant-making 1 is evolution. 

The primal basis of all life is protoplasm. Every plant 
commences its existence as a simple cell. The primary 
and fundamental form of this cell is merely a spheroid 
of protoplasm, devoid alike of wall or nucleus. From 
this protoplasmic body are evolved cell-wall, nucleus, 
plant-tissue, and all the different sorts of plants. 

God's method of animal-making" is evolution. 

Every animal commences its existence as a simple cell, 
the primary and fundamental form of which is merely 
a spheroid of protoplasm without wall or nucleus. In 
the process of the evolution of this morphological unit, 
cell-wall, nucleus, and animal tissue appear; and all the 
different kinds of animals are brought into being. 

God's method of man-making is evolution. 

2 « Commencing with the earliest organisms, the very 
dawn of life, in the very lowest rocks, and passing on- 
ward and upward' through the Geologic ages to the 

i Prof. Fiske. 

2 President LeConte. 

45 



present time, ' 'we find first the lowest forms, and then 
successively forms more and more complex in structure' 
until at last we reach the highest and most complex 
animal organism, the human body. In its pre-natal 
development every child recapitulates through the 
principle of heredity the main points of the Geological 
history of humanity. The embryo becomes successive- 
ly mollusk-like, fish-like, reptile-like, and mammal-like, 
before it is distinctively man-like. Commencing with the 
lowest unicelled microscopic organisms, and passing up 
through the animal scale as it now exists upon the 
earth, we find that in a general way every stage of 
the Geological history of Man's Evolution is represented 
by present living forms. 

The tree is the truest symbol of the system of life 
on our planet. The great tree of life is rooted in the 
soil of the inorganic world. Very near the ground the 
trunk separates into two great branches, the vegetable 
limb and the animal. Limiting ourselves to the latter, we 
may with Pres. LeConte regard it as a straight trunk- 
line leading outward and upward to the terminal bud. 
Pretty soon from this chief animal stem several mol- 
lusk-limbs put out, some of which do not develop to any 
great extent, but one unfolds into all the forms of insect 
life. Meanwhile the main trunk is passing more and 
more from the molluskto the fish-like structure. Next 
a branch shoots out which develops into all the forms of 
fishes. The main stem at this stage combines the 
characteristics of both fish and reptile. Now another 
branch puts out and develops into all the various reptiles. 
And from this reptilian limb, if we mistake not, springs 
the bough that unfolds into all the varieties of birds. 
Returning again to the main stem we find it assuming 

i Pres. LeConte. 

4 6 



mammalian characteristics. It continues to develop, 
sending off to the right or left many mammalian branch- 
es, and rising ever higher terminates at last with man. 
In this chief stem there is a gradual evolution from 
the lowest form of life to the highest, that of man. But 
excepting the apex, the most perfect representatives of 
the different animal types are not found in the body of 
the tree, but in the extremities of its branches. And 
man in his evolution does not pass through the more spec- 
ialized forms but only through the more rudimentary or 
intermediary ones composing the body of the tree. 
Evolution does not teach that man has b^en evolved from 
the modern monkey or that any such can ever become 
a human being. A branch once separated from the as- 
cending trunk-line must grow its own way if it grow at 
all. It can never get back on the main stem. Other 
forms developing away from them, the greatest possi- 
bilities of the tree of life have come up into man, and 
are his alone. Evolution is not an atheistic explana- 
tion of man's origin, but only the method or process by 
which the Deity has created him. Some one asks, 
whence comes man, from nature or from God? We 
answer, from God through nature. The Divine Being 
is the author of nature's laws, and uses them as means 
of bringing humanity into existence. 

God's method of creating consciousness is evo- 
lution. — 1( There does not exist any break or chasm 
between the life that shows no mind and the life that 
shows mind. Observe the evolution of a single animal. 
The yolk of an egg just broken by the cook yields no 
sign of mind and no sign of life. It does not respond to 
.a stimulus as much as many plants do. Had the egg 

i Herbert Spencer. 

47 



been left under the hen a certain time the yolk would 
have passed by infinitesimal gradations through a series 
of forms ending in the chick. And by similarly infini- 
tesimal gradations would have arisen those functions 
which end in the chick breaking its shell; and which 
when it gets out show themselves in running about, 
distinguishing and picking up food, and squeaking when 
hurt. When did the feeling begin and how did there 
come into existence that power of perception which 
the chick's actions show? Take the human being. 
The course of development before birth is of the same 
general kind. And from the unintelligence of the infant 
to the intelligence of the adult there is an advance by 
steps so small that they are not appreciable from day to 
day. In nature from the slow contraction of a polyp's 
tentacles we may pass by insensible steps through ever 
complicating forms of action with their accompanying 
signs of feeling and intelligence until we reach the high- 
est. ' In passing from the not conscious, not intelligent, 
and not moral to the conscious, intelligent, and moral 
there seems to be no leap greater than a chemical union 
or synthesis. What God does in the egg or embryo is 
an epitome of what he has done in the great womb of 
nature. 

The Biblical account of the creation of man has 
a Babylonian origin. — The narrative is mythical and 
traditional. 'A 'mythological age stands at the head of 
all national histories: and that of the Hebrews seems to 
be no exception. ' The Scripture account of creation, as 
we have seen, has many points of agreement with the 
Babylonian legend of the same event. They are 2 < i : 

i Enc Brit. Art. Adam. 

2 Enc. Brit. Art. Cosmogony 

4 8 



the general arrangement, 2 : the introduction of a God 
speaking, 3 : the notion of the primeval flood or watery 
abyss at the beginning, 4: the repeated eulogy on the 
previous creative work as delightful, and 5 : the mention 
of the stars as placed to determine the year. ' In both 
Genesis and the cuneiform text the same three kinds 
of animals are mentioned. T.ie hebdomad of days 
points to Babylon, the mother country of Israel. For 
the Hebrews had from thence the week of seven days. 
1 < The Babylonian account of creation resembles very 
closely that of Genesis. Even the very wording and 
phrases of Genesis occur in it. And though no frag- 
ment is preserved which expressly tells us that the 
work of creation was accomplished in seven days, we 
may infer that such was the case from the order of 
events as recorded on the tablets. ' Moreover it is estab- 
lished, as we have seen, that there is at least at two 
different periods historic connection between the Baby- 
lonian and Hebrew traditions. 

Now 2 < in the tablets of the principal Babylonian story 
of creation are fragments which refer to the creation of 
mankind called Adam, as in the Bible. He is made 
perfect and instructed in his various religious duties. ' 
Also the Babylonians believed that the woman was 
derived from the man. One of the magical textsreads: 
1 'The woman from the loins of the man they bring forth. ' 
Having shown the mythical source of the accounts 
of the creation of the world and man in Genesis, 
let all bear in mind that these Biblical stories should not 
stand in the way of science or evolution, which reveals 
God's method of world-building and man-making. 

1 Prof.Sayce. 

2 Geo. Smith. 

49 



The person Adam of Genesis never existed. 

We must come to this conclusion from the study, not 
only of modern science, but also of Babylonian mythol- 
ogy. That man was not created instantly, but gradually 
through long ages of evolution ' « is corroborated by all 
the testimony which the patient interrogation of the facts 
of nature has succeeded in eliciting. ' Embryology and 
rudimentary organs alone are witness sufficient. Why 
has the embryo of the whale a full set of rudimentary 
teeth which reach their highest development in mid- 
embryonic life and are then absorbed? Again why 
have whales rudimentary hind-legs buried beneath the 
skin and therefore of course wholly useless? Why do 
they have rudimentary hairs, and also rudimentary 
organs of smell made on the pattern of those of mammals, 
not of fishes? The only explanation of these facts is 
that the ancestor of the whale was a gigantic, marsh- 
loving, powerful-tailed, short-legged, scant-haired quad- 
ruped which in time took to the water. And little by little 
for want of use, its hind-legs and other organs now found 
to be rudimentary and hereditary in the embryonic and 
adult whale, were gradually reduced to mere remnants. 

In its pre-natal state the mammal begins to develop 
as if it were going to become a fish and then changing its 
course, acts as if it were going to become a reptile or 
bird, and only after much delay assumes the peculiar 
characteristics of the mammal toward which it is tending. 
In the course of its development the human embryo 
has ' gill-like slits on each side of the neck up to which 
the arteries run in arching branches as in a fish; the 
heart is at first a simple pulsating chamber like the 
heart of the lowest fishes; at a later period there is a 

i Prof. Fiske. 

50 



movable tail considerably longer than the legs; the 
great toe projects sideways from the foot, like the toes 
of adult monkeys and apes; and during the sixth month 
the whole body is covered very thickly with hair ex- 
tending even over the face and ears, everywhere indeed, 
save on the lower sides of the hands and feet which are 
also bare in the adult forms of other mammals.' In the 
face of these facts it seems that to withold assent to the 
evolution theory one must be as obstinate as those who 
would not believe though one rose from the dead; and to 
maintain ' 'that a homogeneous clay model of the human 
form ever was in some inconceivable way, at once trans- 
muted into the wonderfully heterogeneous combination 
of organs and tissues with all their definite and highly 
specialized aptitudes of which actually living man is 
made up, ' it seems that one must be as credulous as 
those who believed ] < that St. Gore of Treves trans- 
formed a sunbeam into a hat-peg or that men were once 
changed into werewolves by simply putting on an en- 
chanted girdle.' Too many regard God as a mere 
wonder-worker or chief magician, and see nothing 
Divine in the sublime and eternal laws of nature. It is 
more impious to refuse credence to these which are His 
everlasting ways than to an inadequate though long 
cherished tradition. 

Turning now to the latter we note that Q 'the name Adam 
is in the Babylonian creation legends, but only in a gen- 
eral sense as man, not as a proper name'. 3< In Gen. 
I. 26:27, V. 2, it is simply appellative, being applied 
to both progenitors of the human race. ' In 2 Gen. II. 
25; III. 8, 20; IV. 1, etc., it assumes the nature of a 

1 Prof. Fiske. 

2 Geo. Smith. 

3 Enc. Brit. Art. Adam. 

51 



proper name, and has the article, the man, the only one 
of his kind. ' In Babylonian mythology it first signified 
the primitive dark Accadian people. Later it denoted 
the white Semitic conquerors of the Accadians, and 
ancestors of the Hebrews. Still later the Jews used it 
as a proper name for the first human being. • « As in 
Hebrew it has come to be the proper name of the first 
man, so, too in the old Babylonian legends the Adamites 
were the white race of Semitic descent who stood in 
marked contrast to the black-heads or Accadians of 
primitive Babylonia. Originally it was the dark race 
itself that claimed to have been the men whom the God 
Merodach created: and it was not until the Semitic 
conquest of Chaldea that the children of Adamu or Adam 
were supposed to denote the white Semitic population; 
hence it is that the dark race continued to the last to be 
called the Adamatu or red-skins which a popular ety- 
molog connected with Adam man.' 

It is clear that the Genesis story of man's origin and 
primitive history is the outgrowth of Babylonian myth. 

It is not founded upon facts. The person, Adam, of 
the Bible, never existed. No Eden or golden age lies 
behind humanity. Let these things be known by all 
who deride or refuse to accept evolution, which is God's 
method of man-making and society building. Let the 
old props be pulled out that new supports may be put 
in their places. God did not make man at once out of 
hand as the child makes his mud pies; but through long 
ages by the process of evolution he brought him into 
being. Man was first a ruder animal that the Creator 
continued to make more perfect. And an ennobled ape 
is more promising than a degenerate Adam. 

i Prof. Sayce. 

52 



The garden of Eden has a Babylonian origin. 

The site of Paradise is to be sought for in Babylonia. 
According *.o Genesis the garden which God planted is, 
from the Palestinean standpoint of the narrator, east- 
ward in Eden. ''And Eden as we learn from the 
cuneiform records' is l 'the ancient name of the field or 
plain of Babylon where the first living creatures had 
been created.' 2 < Eden is the lowland of the twin 
streams, and the garden in Eden, the district near Baby- 
lon, so renowned from of old for its Paradisaic beauty. ' 
*' The name of the district in which it is situated is 
afterwards transferred to itself. ' According to Babylo- 
nian tradition the garden of Eden is the abode of various 
deities, and is in the immediate vicinity of the very 
ancient city Eridu, whose site is in the region of 
Babylon. The rivers of Eden, says Prof. Sayce can be 
found in the rivers and canals of Babylonia. Two of 
them are the Euphrates and Tigris. Pison is the 
Babylonian Pishon, 'signifying canal.' And Gihon 
may be the Accadian Gukhan , « the canal stream, ' or 
branch of the Euphrates on which Babylon stood. 

The tree of knowledge mentioned in Genesis 
has undoubtedly a Babylonian origin. — The por- 
tion of the creation legend where this tree belongs has 
unfortunately not been discovered. 3 > But there is an 
obscure allusion in the cuneiform account to a thirst for 
knowledge having been a cause of man's fall.' 

The tree of life mentioned in Genesis has a 

Babylonian origin This tree ' 'of which so many 

illustrations occur on Assyrian monuments, is declared 

i Prof. Sayce. 

2 Franz Delitzsch. 

3 Geo Smith. 

53 



to be the pine tree of Eridu, the shrine of the God Irnin, 
and Irnin is the name of the Euphrates when regarded 
as the snake river which encircled the world like a rope 
and was the stream of Hea, the snake God of the tree 
of life. ' This sacred tree had many mystic virtues. 
It was instrumental in curing a man possessed with evil 
spirits; was able to shatter the power of the incubus; 
was employed In many incantations and magic rites 
which were intended to restore strength and life to the 
human frame; it was the beloved of the great gods; 
and was under the special protection of Ea, the God of 
wisdom, of the deep, and of the Euphrates. Upon its 
heart or core was inscribed the name of this Deity, 
whose command Merodach obeyed when he created the 
Black-headed Adamites of Sumir. The city Eridu, 
which the people of Sumir or Shinar called the good or 
holy, was, as we have seen, the shrine of Irnin, and in 
the midst of a garden or forest that once lay near it grew 
the holy pine tree, the tree of life. 

The account of the temptation and fall of man 
in Genesis undoubtedly has a Babylonian origin. 

The portion of the creation legend, which doubtless 
treated of this subject, has not been discovered, so, 
1 < no account of the fall of man similar to the one record- 
ed in Genesis has as yet been found among the frag- 
ments of the Assyrian libraries. It is never-the-less 
pretty certain that such an account once existed. An 
archaic Babylonian gem represents a tree on either side 
of which are seated a man and woman with a serpent 
behind them, and their hands are stretched out toward 
the fruit that hangs from the tree. A few stray refer- 
ences in the bi-lingual Accadian and Assyrian dictiona- 
i Prof. Sayce. 

54 



ries throw some light upon this representation, and in- 
form us that the Accadians knew of a wicked spirit, the 
serpent of night and darkness, which had brought about 
the fall of man. ' 1 ' He is first made perfect and instruct- 
ed in his various religious duties, but afterwards he joins 
with the dragon of the deep, the animal of Tiamat, the 
spirit of chaos, and offends against his God, who curses 
him and calls down on his head all the evils and troubles 
of humanity. ' 2< The Biblical account of the fall stands 
in unmistakable connection with the Babylonio- Assyrian 
tradition. ' 

Probably humanity originated in several cen- 
ters on the earth. — With reference to the question, 
3< have all mankind descended from a single pair, ' anthro- 
pologists are divided into two schools, 4 monogenists and 
5 polygenists. The former explains race differences by 
climate and circumstance; the latter, while they admit 
some such modification, yet do not think the explana- 
tion sufficient. Two modern views seem to have 
strengthened the monogenist theory: first the develop- 
ment of species which shows the possibility of race 
variation, and second the great antiquity of man which 
gives time for bringing about such difference. So some 
eminent evolutionists have believed that all mankind 
are descendants from a single stock. 

But 3 * the hypothesis of development admits of the 
argument, that several 6 simious species may have cul- 

i Geo. Smith. 

2 Franz Dclitzsch 

3 Enc. Brit. Art. Anthropology. 

4 One who maintains that all mankind have sprung from one 
original pair. 

5 One who maintains that all mankind have sprung from more 
than one original pair. 

6 Apelike. 

55 



minated in several races of man. As water, salt, and 
other minerals were made all over the world; so proto- 
plasm may have been evolved, and man developed in 
more than one region of the globe. It does not accord 
with the monogenist theory that ' ' physically different 
races, such as the Bushmen and Negroids in Africa, 
show no sign of approximation under the influence of 
the same climate;' that ' * permanence of type is display- 
ed by races ages after they have been transported to 
climates extremely different from that of their former 
home;'that the same color, more or less intense, pervades 
nearly all the tribes of American Indians from the Arctic 
Ocean to Cape Horn; that the tribes ''whose color 
approaches nearest to black are found in the temperate 
zone' instead of the equinoctial regions. 

2 < If man was evolved originally from several centers, 
America assuredly included one at least.' 2< It may be 
asserted with some confidence that there is nothing in 
the physical and mental conditions of the aboriginal 
Americans which require us to postulate for them a 
foreign origin. ' 2 < Nor is there anything in the relig- 
ions, systems of government, architecture, and other 
arts of the native Americans, by which they can be 
connected with the corresponding systems of the east. ' 
And *< science has demonstrated beyond all cavil that 
while differing widely among themselves, the American 
languages not only betray no affinity to any other 
tongue, but belong to an absolutely distinct order of 
speech. ' 

i Enc. Brit. Art. Anthropology. 
2 Enc. Brit. Art. Indians. 

56 



Only those languages l< have been shown related 
which possess a common structure.' ]< To trace all 
the world's languages so far back toward their beginning 
as to find in them evidences of identity is beyond the 
wildest hope.' l * The question of the unity of speech, 
and yet more that of the unity of the race, is beyond 
the reach of the student of language. ' 

If the race is one, it does not follow that the beginnings 
of speech are one, and vice versa. Language cannot 
serve on either side of the controversy concerning the 
origin of the race or the unity of mankind. In ail 
probability there was a considerable first-period of human 
existence without traditional speech. Meanwhile the 
race must have multiplied and scattered into independent 
communities. So it is reasonably certain that language 
had several different beginnings. And if it is true that 
the human race ranged over the earth from several 
centers the fact does not interfere with the fatherhood of 
God, the brotherhood of man, nor the solidarity of the 
world. Have we not all one Father? Hath not one 
God created us? 

The ten antediluvian patriarchs have their 
prototypes in Babylonian mythology. 

The legend lore of the Babylonians tells of ten kings 
who reigned for a long period of time anterior to the 
deluge. The mythologies of other nations in that 
quarter of the world contain the same number of kings. 
The tradition of the ten antediluvian patriarchs 2 < is 
traced back to a really primitive epoch when the ances- 
tors of all the races among whom we have found it 
still lived contiguous to one another, intimately enough 

i Prof. Whitney, Enc. Brit. Art. Philology. 
2 Lenormant. 

57 



associated to account for this community of tradition, not 
being yet scattered abroad to any great extent. At 
this epoch in the progressive march of acquirement ten 
was the highest number which had been reached, con- 
sequently the indeterminate number, and the one which 
was used to express many, and convey the general idea 
of plurality. At this stage the primitive quinary numer- 
ation suggested by the fingers on the hand had passed 
on to the decimal numeration based on the digital cal- 
culation of the two hands. ' 

As long centuries pass, and Astronomy is cultivated, 
and the zodiac developed by the Babylonians, they place 
their ten antediluvian kings in ten of the zodiacal man- 
sions. To the Babylonians the zodiac is the symbol of 
both a year and an astronomical period of many thous- 
ands cf years. Now it is known that from these ten 
representatives of the Babylonian months and cosmical 
epochs, the list of antediluvian patriarchs in the Bible is 
an outgrowth or a formation. 

The long- lives of the patriarchs have their ex- 
planation in Babylonian mythology — ] 'What then 
is our position with respect to the statementsof prolonged 
life which reach from 777 to 969 years? Every attempt 
to reduce the years to shorter periods has been vain. ' 
1 < On the other hand so long a duration of life as is 
spoken of in' the fifth Ch. of Genesis ' 'cannot be con- 
ceived, of either historic or present human nature. In 
the present time only one out of 100,000 attains the age 
of 1 00, and only one out of 5 00, that of 90. ' The testi- 
mony of legend with reference to long lifetime in prime- 
val ages and its gradual shortening, is untrustworthy. 

1 Delitzsch. 

58 



1 < However remarkable may have been the memory of 
the ancients, during those ages when they did not as yet 
possess the art of writing, it is impossible to imagine that 
they could have preserved so exact a record of the ages 
of the first men, at an epoch too when they did not 
even possess a terminology to express so considerable 
a lapse of time. We are forcibly impelled to refuse all 
historic character to the figures of longevity ascribed by 
the Bible to the antediluvian patriarchs, and simply to 
regard them as cyclic numbers. ' They are seen to be 
not a definite special tradition handed down from the first 
man, but a computation which is the result of reflection. 

It is known that a long period of time is artificially 
distributed among the ten antediluvian patriarchs just as 
in Babylonian mythology a long period of time is dis- 
tributed among the ten antediluvian kings. This great 
epoch which was symbolized by the zodiac and repre- 
sented by the ten mythical kings who, as we have 
seen, were placed in ten of the zodiacal mansions, l 'does 
not in the detailed figures which give the duration of 
each reign, offer itself to us in ten equal parts. The 
reigns are unequal. But there is a certain connection 
between the inequality of the reigns and the inequality 
of the spaces occupied in the heavens by the constella- 
tions which have given their names to the zodiacal 
mansions. ' l 'The longest reigns coincide with the largest 
constellations. ' Now the sum of the life lengths of the 
ten antediluvian patriarchs very nearly equals a Baby- 
lonian cyclic number. And the inequality of their ages 
parallels the inequality of the ten antediluvian reigns of 
Babylonian mythology, and also the inequality of the 
spaces occupied by the zodiacal constellations where the 
kings had their respective seats. 

i Lenormant. 

59 



The account of the deluge in Genesis has a 
Babylonian origin. — The legend of the flood is not 
found among all nations. ' 'The Egyptians and (probably) 
the Persians had none; and it is doubtful whether it 
exist in non-Mahometan Africa. ' The black race is 
without it Says Lenormant: Traces of the tradition 
have been vainly sought both among the African tribes 
and the dusky population of Oceanica. ' ' 'Probably, too, 
large deductions should be made from the myths of 
savage tribes on the ground of Christian influence, even 
when related by well informed travelers.' No doubt 
much of the fantastic flood-lore found among the Amer- 
ican Indians is but a transformation of what missionaries 
have told them. 

2 ' The circuit in which the legend of the flood was 
disseminated in the ancient world is, when rightly 
regarded, of no great extent. Starting from the region 
of the Tigris and Euphrates, it spread westward over 
Anterior Asia and thence to Greece, and eastward to 
the Indians, after they had advanced from Hindukuh 
along the Indus as far as the sea, acquiring everywhere 
fresh national coloring, and attaching itself to different 
localities. ' Only among those nations, the Jews and 
other Semitic peoples included, whose primitive seats 
were in the region of Mesopotamia, do we find flood- 
stories that are clearly akin. These widely separated 
legends evidence the unity of their origin in the 
Euphrates valley and not the universality of a flood. 

2< A universal deluge, covering at the same time the 
whole earth to its highest mountain peaks, is physically 
and geologically inconceivable, inconceivable an atmos- 

i Enc. Brit., Art Deluge. 
2 Delitzsch. 

60 



pheric deposit taking place simultaneously upon both 
hemispheres, inconceivable the creation of the mass 
of water needed for such a watery covering of the 
whole globe, inconceivable the continued existence 
of the world of water animals in the intermingling of 
salt and fresh water by the Flood. For the accom- 
plishment of these inconceivabilities recourse must be 
had to miracles of omnipotence, concerning which the 
narrative is entirely silent. ' We may feel sure that the 
whole world was never overflowed by the waters of a 
deluge. 

The most primitive legend of the flood belongs to the 
Euphrates Valley. And ] * wherever we meet among 
ancient nations with a legend of the Deluge homogene- 
ous in its chief features it will have to be admitted that 
it has arisen, if not directly, yet through some kind of 
medium either more ancient or more recent, from the 
source of legends found in Mesopotamia. ' We possess 
two versions of the Babylonian account of the deluge, 
Berosus' story and the cuneiform legend read in 2 < the 
portion of the nth lay of the great mythological epic 
discovered by Mr. George Smith. ' The latter is 2 'our 
most valuable authority for the Babylonian deluge-story. ' 
2< It comes from the library of king Assurbanipal, and 
dates from about 600 B. C, but the Accadian original 
from which it was translated may well (says the cau- 
tious Assyriologue, Dr. Shrader) have been composed 
between 1000 and 2000 B. C, while the myths them- 
selves will of course be much older.' 3< This account 
shows clear traces of having been compounded out of at 

1 Delitzsch. 

2 Enc. Brit. Art. Deluge. 

3 Prof. Sayce. 

61 



least two older narratives.' And it }( is evident to 
even a superficial observation that the history of the 
flood in its Biblical form < is composed of two closely 
interwoven documents. ' This welding together of two 
documents in both the Babylonian and the Biblical 
legends explains the inconsistencies in each. 

Now though there is between these two accounts, 
the Babylonian and the Biblical, a difference in detail; 
yet there is a remarkable parallelism between them. 
2 'In their main features the two stories fairly agree; as 
to the wickedness of the antediluvian world, the divine 
anger and command to build the ark, its stocking with 
birds and beasts, the coming of the deluge, the rain and 
storm, the ark resting on a mountain, trial being made 
by birds sent out to see if the waters had subsided, 
and the building of an altar after the flood. All these 
main facts occur in the same order in both.' 3 < It is 
most evident to whomsoever may compare the two 
accounts that they must have been one and the same 
until the epoch when the Terahites left Ur for Pales- 
tine. ' It is clear that from the Babylonian narrative 
the Jews took the material of theirs and adapted it to 
their moral and monotheistic ideas. 

The source of the Babylonian legend now concerns 
us. The fact that Egyptian mythology has no fully 
developed deluge-story isby^some scholars '< accounted 
for by the circumstance that the inundation of the land 
is, in Egyptian nations, not a calamity, but a benefit. ' 
Nevertheless an Egyptian myth is found which embod- 
ies a conception analogous to that of the narrative in 

i Delitzsch. 

2 Mr. George Smith. 

3 Lenormant. 

62 



Genesis. l ' Ra. the creator, being disgusted with the 
insolence of mankind resolves to exterminate them. ' 
* < The means of punishment is however not a flood, 
but a slaughter. ' ! ' The massacre causes human blood 
to flow to Heliopolis, upon which Ra repents, and 
swears with uplifted hand not to destroy mankind 
again. ' In adopting the legend 3 * the Egyptians retained 
the tradition of the destruction of mankind; but as an 
inundation was for them a symbol of prosperity and life 
they altered the primitive tradition. ' 

Now 4 * the rivers of Babylon were not, like the Nile, 
the bringers of unmixed good. They might indeed be 
termed the bearers of fertility, but their destructive 
floods needed curbing by dams and canals; and the curse 
of rain that descended on the land during the winter 
months made the rivers also curses instead of blessings. ' 
We must remember that Babylonian civilization was 
cradled in the great plain near the ocean, 5< in the lower 
district of an alluvial basin, in which the soil was grad- 
ually stolen from the sea by long continued deposits of 
river mud. ' Almost the sole Geographical features of 
the region are the rivers. 6 <The dead level stretches 
away as far as the eye can follow it, and like the sea 
melts into the sky of the horizon. ' In this great fertile 
flat which the twin rivers were wont annually to over- 
flow, the legend of the flood naturally had its birth. 

The Babylonian deluge-story is a mythico-poetical 
picture of the rainy season of the year in that aqueous 

i Ency. Brit. 

2 Delitzsch. 

3 Lenormant. 

4 Prof. Sayce. 

5 Perrot andChipiez. 

6 Geo. Rawlinson. 

63 



land. In Babylonian mythology there is a great poem 
called the Izdubar legend, composed of twelve parts or 
lays, recorded ' « on twelve tablets, with an obvious 
design of corelation with the twelve divisions of the 
sun's annual course.' Speaking in a general way, the 
twelve songs correspond to the twelve signs of the 
zodiac, the twelve months of the year, and the deities 
that preside over the months. Each lay portrays a 
peculiarity or characteristic of its corresponding month, 
presiding deity, and zodiacal sign. Now the eleventh 
lay, which, as we have before stated, is the best Baby- 
lonian story of the deluge, corresponds to the eleventh 
month of the Babylonians (part of our January and Feb- 
ruary), the month of the malediction of rain, the month 
whose presiding deity is Rammam, the inundator, and 
whose zodiacal sign is Aquarius, the water-bearer. 

All the accounts in Genesis from the creation 
of the world to the going* out from the ark af- 
ter the flood are in the main a reflection of 
the Babylonian zodiac. — The formation of the orga- 
nized universe and of man, the fratricide and founding 
of the first city, the ten antediluvian patriarchs and 
their peculiarities, the moral deterioration of mankind, 
the deluge and the new-beginning are all paralleled in 
that complex calendrical system. The writer of the 
Biblical antediluvian narrative does not reproduce the 
literature of the calendar exactly. He alters it some- 
what, eliminating its exuberant polytheism and giving 
it the stamp of a severe monotheism. He also with 
some of the later Babylonians, partially transforms it 
from the material to the moral, from the physical to the 
spiritual. 

i Enc Brit. 

6 4 



In the Babylonian zodiac the names of the ten ante- 
diluvian kings and of the deities, who preside over the 
months, are, for the most part, personifications of the 
sun. Their succession and that of the signs of the 
months, in the zodiac, express the principal phases of 
the sun's apparent annual revolution, its alternations of 
waxing and waning, its different peculiarities, deeds, 
and experiences as a deity in the successive stages of 
its journey. The Biblical narrative goes over the same 
ground with its one Supreme Deity, its legends, and its 
patriarchal genealogies. But what to the ancient Baby- 
lonians was an expression of the sun's retrogression 
becomes in the ' « Bible a purely moral decadence of the 
whole human race which corrupts its way by sin, ceases 
to listen to the divine precepts, and by the accumulation 
of its errors committed of its free will excites the anger of 
God, drawing upon itself the terrible punishment of the 
deluge. ' Enoch ceases to represent the sun still strug- 
gling against the progress of the power of winter and 
becomes the righteous man who alone of his generation 
walks with God. Noah is no longer representative of 
the luminary of day in the darkness and clouds of 
winter submerged, purified, and then reborn, rejuvenated; 
but is transformed into the just and perfect man saved 
by the protection of Jehovah. 

From the study of Babylonian mythology it is clear 
that the sun's autumnal decline has been transformed 
into the moral decadence of mankind, and that the sun's 
combat with the principle of darkness and winter has 
been transformed into Noah's experience with the wa- 
ters of the deluge. All the accounts in the first ten 
chapters of Genesis are primitive-man's crude concep- 
tions of nature, which 4,000 years B. C. found their 

1 Lenormant. 

65 



place in the zodiac, and which thence have been trans- 
mitted to us. We should all feel grateful for the new 
light Assyriology has shed upon these legends. They 
are now known to be not from God in any peculiar 
sense. They have not been useless, but they have 
served their day. We no longer feel the necessity of 
giving credence to narratives whose origin is mythical, 
whose history is the record of long ages of mythical 
evolution, and whose teaching is in great part at variance 
with the handwriting God has written on all the great 
walls of the world and on the tablets of the best minds 
and hearts of humanity. The time has come when we 
must teach as the divine method not mythical tradition, 
but scientific evolution. The time has come when we 
must also cease falsifying the Divine Nature, teaching 
that the good God, who is long-suffering toward us, 
once, arbitrarily and ruthlessly destroyed the race of 
men. 

Man has been a denizen of this world for un- 
told ages. — ' ' Archbishop Usher of the English church, 
some two and a half centuries since, taking the Bible 
narrative as his guide, made the period of man's occu- 
pancy of the earth, somewhere from four thousand and 
four, to four thousand one hundred and seventy-four 
years before Christ, or say, in round numbers, six 
thousand years to the present date. ' This chronology 
was generally accepted until of late years. 

But 2 'geology, notwithstanding the imperfection of its 
results, has made it manifest that our earth must have 
been the seat of vegetable and animal life for an im- 
mense period of time; while the first appearance of man, 

i J. H. Chapin, Ph. D. 

2 Ency. Brit., Art. Anthropology. 

66 



though comparatively recent, is positively so remote, 
that an estimate between twenty and a hundred thous- 
and years may fairly be taken as a minimum. This 
Geological claim for a vast antiquity of the human race 
is supported by the similar claims of prehistoric ar- 
chaeology and the science of culture, the evidence of all 
three departments of inquiry being intimately connected, 
and in perfect harmony. ' 

1 'Suppose we go back to Egypt seven thousand years 
ago, we do not find the human race there in its infancy. 
They had a language, not merely of signs but of vocal 
utterances, a written language, not of mythic hieroglyphs 
only, but of characters that may still be read; they had 
extensive knowledge of many useful arts, and they had 
a well established form of government. Men do not 
leap at a bound to such conditions. ' So we must add 
to the 7,000 years 2< a probably much greater length of 
time, during which the knowledge, arts, and institutions 
of the Egyptians 2< attained to their remarkably high 
level.' 

2 'The evidence of comparative philology corroborates 
this judgment. The Hindus, Medes, Persians, Greeks, 
Romans, Germans, Kelts, and Slaves make their appear- 
ance at more or less remote dates as nations separate in 
language as in history. Nevertheless it is now acknowl- 
edged that at some far remote time these nations 
originated from a single barbaric people, ' speaking a 
now extinct language, called Aryan; and that many 
thousands of years are necessary for the development 
of these child tongues as we know them at the dawn 
of history. 

1 J. H.Chapin,Ph. D. 

2 Ency. Brit. Art. Anthropology, 

67 



Further, the high antiquity of the race is inferred 
''from the depth of mud, earth, peat, etc., which has 
accumulated above relics of human art imbedded in an- 
cient times. ' Such is ''Mr. Horner's argument from the 
numerous borings made in the alluvium of the Nile 
valley to a depth of sixty feet, where down to the 
lowest level fragments of burnt brick and pottery were 
always found, showing that people advanced enough in 
the arts to bake brick and pottery have inhabited the 
valley during the long period required of the Nile inun- 
dations to deposit 60 feet of mud, at a rate probably not 
averaging more than a few inches in a century. ' 

We have, moreover, in the Danish peat-beds indis- 
putable evidence of the great antiquity ot man. *' In 
the peat, at various depths below the surface are 
prostrate trunks of trees, that have evidently grown 
upon the borders of the bog and fallen in. ' The higher 
strata contain trunks of the beech, which is the common 
forest tree of the country to-day. It occupied the 
ground at the time of the Roman invasion almost two 
thousand years ago, and is the tree of Danish tradition. 
Below the layer of beech are trunks of oak of very 
great size, which evidence an era when the prevail- 
ing forest tree was oak. At a still lower level, two to 
five feet from the bottom, are the trunks of pine, from 
two to three feet in diameter and their number indicates 
that they at one time were the prevailing forest tree. 
Now 3 ' beneath the buried trunks of these pine trees,' 
and 2 < in such positions as they could not have reached 
by simply working their way downward,' 3 < flint in- 

1 Ency. Brit. Art. Anthropology. 

2 J. H. Chapin, Ph. D. 

3 G. Frederick Wright. 

68 . 



struments are found, showing that man was a hunter, 
in possession of polished stone weapons, even in those 
early days. ' A period, lying back of the climatic and 
other physical changes implied in the successive sorts of 
prevailing forest trees, must be very remote indeed. 

These are a few of the arguments that prove the 
high antiquity of the human race. Let us consider 
another which offers more satisfactory means of deter- 
mining the time of man's appearance on the globe. 
1 'It is known with certainty that at a relatively recent 
epoch our northern hemisphere was covered with gla- 
ciers. ' ''The continent of North America was deeply 
swathed in ice as far south as the latitude of Philadel- 
phia. At the same time a parallel phenomenon occurred 
on the eastern hemisphere. It is also known with 
certainty ' < that men existed both in Europe and in 
North America at the beginning of the glacial period;' 
and ' < this extensive dispersal implies the existence of 
the human race for a long time previous to this epoch. ' 

We have now to ascertain the date of the ice-sheet. 
To do this we must consider its cause. ' ' It has been 
proved by Mr. Croll that the primary cause of the 
glaciation of the northern hemisphere was a change in 
the shape of the earth's orbit, such as had occurred 
before and will occur again; and that the dates of these 
changes in the orbit, whether past or future, can be 
determined by astronomical methods with great accu- 
racy. ' To the variously-compounded attractions of the 
other planets these changes are due. At present the 
elongation of the earth's orbit is such that the ' « winter 
i Prof. Fiske. 

6 9 



half of the year, or the interval from the autumnal to 
the vernal equinox is nearly eight days shorter than 
the summer half of the year, ' or the interval from the 
vernal to the autumnal equinox. Consequently the 
northern hemisphere receives more heat than the south- 
ern, ' < the south pole is much colder than the north 
pole, ' the southern trade-winds are much stronger than 
the northern, the neutral zone where they meet is 
some five degrees north of the equator, most of the 
heated water of the central Atlantic on both sides of the 
equator gets carried into the northern temperate zone, 
and the Antarctic continent is completely enveloped in 
ice even down to the sixty-seventh degree of latitude. 
Now there have been times in the past when the eccen- 
tricity of the earth's orbit was such that the winter 
half of the year in the northern hemisphere was nearly 
twenty-eight days longer than the summer half. Con- 
sequently the southern hemisphere received much more 
heat than the northern, the north pole became much 
colder than the south pole, the northern trades blew 
with much greater force than the southern, the neutral 
line was shifted some fifteen or twenty degrees south of 
the equator, the great ocean currents driven by the 
trade-winds all tended southward. Now the most 
recent period of high eccentricity of the earth's orbit 
from which such a northern ice age as we are consider- 
ing could come ' 'began 240, 000 years ago, " Masted 1 60, - 
000 years, ' and ! 'came to an end 80,000 years ago. ' And 
we are able 2 < to affirm as an undoubted fact that at the 
earliest stage of the quaternary ' or glacial 2 'period the 
human species not only existed but was already widely 

1 Prof. Fiske. 
2. S. Laing. 

70 



diffused over four continents, and occupied nearly the 
whole surface of the habitable globe. ' And such wide 
spread existence at the beginning of the glacial epoch 
1 < implies a long previous existence in tertiary or pre- 
glacial times. And the evidence for this is fast accu- 
mulating. There are at least ten cases in which traces 
of tertiary men have been vouched for by competent 
geologists. ' This testimony carries back of the glacial 
period ' 'the antiquity of man from one or two hundred 
thousand years to at least a million.' So when we say 
man originated in the pre-glacial era, at least 400,000 
years ago, when as is known there were species of 
anthropoid apes equal to him in stature, we are making a 
statement which the facts and the testimony of eminent 
specialists seem to amply warrant. 

Language making" is evolution — 2 <The doctrine 
was formerly current that a ready-made vocabulary and 
grammar had been put into the minds and mouths of 
the first human beings by a superhuman agency; and 
that variation, not unaided by miraculous intervention, 
of that original tongue had resulted in the infinity of 
dialects now existing. But the students of language 
have come to see clearly that men as they are, with 
the natures implanted in them, and in the circumstances 
by which they are surrounded, not only might, but 
certainly would, work out by the normal exercise of 
their powers, means of expression and communication 
such as we now see them possessed of; and that the 
origin and history of speech are thus completely ac- 
counted for by causes, which we are accustomed to call 



1 S. Laing. 

2 Prof. Whitnev. 



71 



natural.' The beginnings of speech were simple roots. 
These were not parts of speech, but signified external, 
physical, sensible, acts or qualities. During an almost 
impenetrable past these l ' first scanty and formless signs 
have been changed into the immense variety and fullness 
of existing speech. ' 

Probably there never was a primeval mother- 
tongue. — 2 <From the vantage ground which we now 
occupy, it is not difficult to see that the hypothesis of a 
single primeval language from which all existing lan- 
guages have descended, involves an absurd assumption. ' 
2 < After fifty years of comparative study, in a cautious 
and prudent way, we have beside the 3 Aryan family, 
in the study of which such profound knowledge has 
been obtained, clearly made out the existence of the 
Dravidian family, in southern India, and of the Altaic 
family to which the Finnish, Hungarian, and Turkish 
belong, to say nothing of the long established Semitic 
family.' 2 <But the moment we try to compare these 
families with each other in order to detect some defin- 
able link of relationship between them we are instantly 
baffled.' 2 < Apart from a few casual coincidences, as in 
the Hebrew and Sanscrit words for six, there is not a 
trace of similarity between the Semitic and the Aryan 
vocabularies; while as regards both inflection and syntax, 
the entire structure of these two families of speech is 
so radically unlike, that only the most desperate feeling 
of speculative necessity could ever have induced anyone 
to seek a common original for the two.' 4< All etymol- 

i Prof. Whitney. 

2 Prof. Fiske. 

3 The English and almost all the languages of Europe, also 
the Sanskrit and Persian dialects. 

4 International Dictionary. 

72 



ogizing which assumes or implies a radical affinity be- 
tween English and Hebrew, English and Finnish, or the 
like, is, in the present state of Philology, unscientific 
and illusory. ' J 'The best authorities tell us that a list 
of from fifty to one hundred languages could be made 
of which no one has been satisfactorily shown to be 
related to any other. ■ 

The account in Genesis of the tower of Babel 
and confusion of tongues has a Babylonian ori- 
gin. — 2( Mr. George Smith discovered some broken 
fragments of a cuneiform text which evidently relate to 
the building of the tower of Babel. It tells us how 
certain men had turned against the father of all the 
gods, and how the thoughts of their leaders' hearts 
were evil. At Babylon they essayed to build a mound 
or hill-like tower, but the wind blew down their work, 
and Anu confounded great and small on the mound as 
well as their speech, and made strange their counsel. 
The very word that is used in the sense of confounding 
in the narrative of Genesis is used also in the Assyrian 
text.' This legend is simply the mythical way in 
which the ancient Babylonians and Hebrews accounted 
for the diversity of human speech. 

The civilization of the world has been gradually 
developed from an original stone-age culture. 

Archaeologists usually 3( distinguish four different periods 
in the existence of the human race, according to the 
degree of advancement in art, namely: the Paleolithic 
or Rough Stone age, the Neolithic or Polished Stone 
Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age. ' The first 

i S. L3ing. 

2 Prof. Savce. 

3 J.H. Chapin, Ph. D. 

73 



'< marks the rudest stage of man's existence; when 
arrows, knives and other implements of the chase and 
for domestic use, were roughly shapen from hard stone, 
chiefly flint and argillite. ' The second 1( marks a 
period of some advancement upon the condition of the 
former, when men had learned to smooth and polish their 
implements; and they employed a greater variety of 
hard stones. ' The third ' < marks the early use of met- 
als in the arts, ' when men mixed copper with tin, pro- 
ducing the alloy known as bronze. ' The Iron age marks 
the higher civilization, when men, having learned mining 
and smelting, began to produce that most useful of met- 
als.' 

1 'Wherever the history of man has been definitely 
traced, he seems to have passed through these several 
stages, or to be passing through them now.' 2 <We 
see man living on the earth for perhaps half a million 
years, to all intents and purposes dumb, leaving none 
but a geological record of his existence, progressing with 
infinite slowness and difficulty, making no history. Yet 
his geological record is not quite like that of the dog or 
the ape, which could not chip a flint, and in the incised 
antlers of the Cave-Men (engravings of animals and 
hunting scenes) we see the first faint gleams of the 
divine intelligence that was by and by to shine forth 
with the glories of a Michael Angelo.' ' 2 < During these 
long dumb ages, through infinite hardships and through 
the stern regimen of deadly competition and natural 
selection, man was slowly but surely acquiring that 
intellectual life which was at last to bloom forth in his- 
tory, and which has made him the crown and glory of 
the universe.' 



i J.H. Chapin, Ph. D. 
2 Prof. Fiske. 



74 



Society-building is evolution. — '« In the perma- 
nent family we have the germ of society.' With 
man's increasing intelligence has come a lengthened 
infancy, and a prolongation of parental affection. In 
general throughout the animal kingdom ] ' the duration 
of the feelings which insure the protection of the off- 
spring is determined by the duration of infancy.' 
1 « Where the infancy is very short the parental feeling, 
though intense while it lasts, presently disappears, and 
the offspring ceases to be distinguished from strangers 
of the same species. The reverse of this is true of the 
man-like and the human mammal. Now with reference 
to our primeval ancestors ' 'the prolonged helplessness of 
the offspring must keep the parents together for longer 
and longer periods in successive epochs; and when at last 
the association is so long kept up that the older children 
are growing mature while the younger ones need pro- 
tection, the family relations begin to become permanent. 
The parents have lived so long in company that to seek 
new companionships involves some disturbance of en- 
grained habits, hence the family. ' < And meanwhile the 
older sons are more likely to continue their original asso- 
ciation with each other than to establish associations 
with strangers, since they have common objects to 
achieve, and common enmities bequeathed and acquired 
with neighboring families. ' Thus the little group gradu- 
ally becomes a clan. ] 'Vestiges of a time when there 
were no aggregations of men more extensive than the 
tribal community, and when there was no sovereign au- 
thority save that exercised by the head of the tribe, 
may be found in every part of the world, and among 
totally-savage races this state of things still continues. ' 
i Prof Fiske. 

75 



1 * The primeval tribe wanders from spot to spot, seek- 
ing ever a better hunting-ground or richer pasturage, 
leading a predatory life which differs in little save in its 
family organization from that led by the lower animals. 
In this state of society constant warfare is inevitable, 
since each tribe must fight or be crushed out of existence 
by neighboring tribes. Over a large part of the earth's 
surface, such has been the monotonous career of savage 
man from the earliest times until the present day.' 
Now ' a considerable step toward civilization is taken 
when tribes begin to aggregate for mutual defence over 
a wide tract of country. A far more important step is 
taken when warfare ceases to be purely destructive and 
becomes acquisitive; or, in other words when the victors, 
instead of massacring the vanquished, begin to make 
slaves of them. ' By this step agricultural industry is 
fairly brought into existence and the tribal confederacy 
becomes fixed in location. As the spirit of industry 
gradually grows, division of labor takes place, the vari- 
ous portions of the community are more and more depend- 
ent on each other, a state of warfare is less easy to 
sustain, and continually though slowly the frequency 
of wars is diminished and their duration shortened. The 
ever increasing interdependence of human interests at 
home and abroad, the ever increasing complications both 
of the implements and the methods of warfare due to 
scientific and industrial progress, rendering war ever 
more costly and destructive, make the community less 
willing to engage in it. ' < These co-operating causes 
must go on until probably at no distant period, warfare 
shall have become extinct in all the civilized portions of 
the globe. ' 

i Prof. Fiske, 

76 



Man's golden age is in the future. — Poetry and 
mythology are wont to represent the earliest age of 
man's abode upon the earth as one of purity and inno- 
cence, of prosperity and peace, a time when he lived in 
perfect happiness on the fruits of the unfilled earth, 
suffered no bodily infirmity, passed away in a gentle 
sleep, and became after his demise a guardian daemon 
of this world. All this is nothing more than gloss, ' ' an 
air-hung mirage over sterile desert sands. ' The ideal 
of our humanity is painted not on the crumbling walls 
of the past but on the fresh clean canvas of the future. 
We must look not backward but forward for man's best 
and happiest lot. Just as the astronomer can predict 
the future state of the heavens, so the sociologist can 
foresee that division of labor, mutual dependence, coin- 
cidence of human interests throughout vast areas, growth 
of international friendship, antagonism against warfare 
as against an intolerable disturbance, and the spirit of 
Christianity, making ever wider and deeper conquests 
must as cooperating forces go on until in the remote fu- 
ture an approximately perfect state of society will be 
reached all over the world. 

Human progress is the law of history. — 2 < By 

far the most obvious and constant characteristic common 
to a vast number of social changes is that they are 
changes from a worse to a better state of things, that 
they constitute phases of progress. ' 2< It is not asserted 
that human history has in all times and places been 
the history of progress. ' We do not entertain the fal- 
lacy of supposing civilization to have without any excep- 
tion proceeded serially or uniformly. The career of 

1 Gerald Massey, 

2 Prof. Fiske. 

77 



progress ' « has been frequently interrupted by periods 
of stagnation and declension. ' Nevertheless generally 
speaking humanity advances. 

1 4 The prime factors in social progress are the com- 
munity and its environment. The environment of a 
community comprises all the circumstances adjacent or 
remote to which the community may be in any way 
obliged to conform its actions, the climate of the coun- 
try, its soil, flora, fauna, perpendicular elevation, its 
relation to mountain-chains, its length of coast-line, geo- 
graphical position with reference to other countries; and 
1 ' it includes also the ideas, feelings, customs, and 
observances of past times, so far as they are pre- 
served by literature, traditions or monuments; as well 
as foreign contemporary manners and opinions, so far as 
they are known and regarded by the community in 
question.' Thus the environment of a community 
may be very limited or very extensive. This in part at 
least explains why some nations make little and others 
much progress. ' 'The environment of an Eskimo tribe 
consists in the physical circumstances of Labrador, of a 
few traders or travellers, and of the sum total of the 
traditions received from ancestral Eskimos. ' While on 
the other hand the environment of the United States 
1 ' comprises the physical conditions of the North Amer- 
ican continent, also all contemporary nations with 
whom we have intercourse, and all the organized tra- 
dition — political and ethical, scientific and religious — 
which we possess. ' 1 'As civilization advances, the or- 
ganized experience of past generations becomes to a 
greater and greater extent the all important factor of 
progress. As Comte expresses it in one of his pro- 

i Prof. Fiske. 

7S 



foundest aphorisms, the empire of the dead over the 
living increases from age to age. ' 

The highest conception of the Supreme Being 
is the result of evolution. — ] < It has been till recently, 
and is still to a considerable extent, the prevalent as- 
sumption that the universality of religious phenomena 
among men could have no other ground than a primitive 
revelation of some sort, a miraculous communication to 
the ancestors of our race of a certain amount of absolute 
truth respecting the unseen world and man's relation to 
that world, which truth has been variously lost and 
disguised and corrupted, till in place of it have come the 
systems, ranging through every conceivable degree of 
falsity and degrading absurdity, which we find to have 
actually existed in the earth since the first beginning 
of historical record. ' 1 'But it hardly needs to be pointed 
out that the whole tendency of modern scientific thought 
is opposed to the passing of such an assumption un- 
challenged. It seems a part of the old free-and-easy 
system of accounting by a miracle for anything that 
seems difficult of explanation; and that system has 
long been tumbling to pieces, undermined by historical 
research.' Comte has the credit of helping men 
study all phases of thought with reference to pre- 
ceding phases of thought. There are, he says, 2 < three 
successive stages of theology; Fetichism, in which phe- 
nomena, being not yet generalized, are regarded each 
as being endowed with a volition of its own; Polytheism, 
in which generalized groups of phenomena are regaided 
each as under the control of a presiding deity endowed 
with volition; and Monotheism, which arises when men 



i Prof. Whitney. 
2 Prof. Fiske. 



79 



have gained the conception of a universe, and have 
generalized the causes of phenomena until they have 
arrived at the notion of a single First Cause. ' With 
such succession the facts of religious history are wholly 
in harmony. ' < No trace of monotheism is to be found 
anywhere in the world except with a polytheism behind 
it: witness the Semitic polytheism out of which issues 
the Hebrew, and later the Mohammedan, belief in one 
God, or the Aryan polytheism underlying both the dualism 
(if it is fairly to be so called) of Zoroaster and such phil- 
osophic unity of creator as Hindu sages of the later time 
have sporadically come to hold. When the contrary of 
this is sought to be discovered — as for instance by some 
authorities in the Vedic Hymns — it is only by an inver- 
sion of the true and obvious relations of things and by 
other fruitless straining of facts to sustain an untenable 
theory. ' When we read that in ancient historical Egypt 
the higher orders of the priesthood *' believed in one 
Eternal God, from whom all other deities were produced, 
and whom they did not permit themselves even to 
name, far less to represent under any visible form, ' we 
do not forget the long ages of development which we 
know preceded any attainment which was theirs in 
historic times. 

The Bible is the result of evolution. — 3 « It is a 
library of sixty different books, written by between 
fifty and sixty different writers. If we assume as I 
think we may, that the first writings of the canon date 
from the age of Moses and the last from the close of 
the first century, this volume is the product of about 
sixteen centuries of national life. ' During these centu- 

i Prof. Whitney. 

2 Stewart and Lait. 

3 Lvman Abbott, D. D. 

80 



ries the religious teachers of Israel instructed the people 
concerning the divine life, occasionally by writing, gen- 
erally by speech. Parts of what they spoke were by 
themselves or others reduced to writing; ' < parts of what 
were thus reduced to writing were preserved; parts of 
what were thus preserved were incorporated in what is 
known as the Bible. ' 1 'The process by which the books 
both of the Old Testament and of the New Testament 
were collected was a gradual, natural, and practical one of 
selection and elimination in which there was a struggle 
for existence and a survival of the fittest. ' 

2< The individual who first gave public sanction to a 
portion of the national Jewish literature was Ezra, who 
laid the foundation of a canon.' 3 <lt was the Penta- 
teuch or Law that first became canonical. Through 
the influence of Ezra and Nehemiah the Prophets became 
so considerably later. And the Hagiography last of 
all. ' It appears that the canon of the Old Testament 
was not fixed or closed till the first century of the 
Christian era. The higher the value placed upon the 
writings, the more they were regarded as conducive 
to the religious life and advancement of the people, the 
more readily were they received into the authoritative 
collection. 

The New Testament 4< canon was formed gradually.' 
Though each church or sect had its favorite gospel and 
apostolic records, yet till the latter half of the second 
century there was no collection of New Testament 
books that approached completeness and was authori- 

i Lyman Abbott, D. D. 

2 Smith Davidson. 

3 Jules Wellhausen. 

4 Bishop Westcott. 

8i 



tative. At this time there was ' * a canon consisting of 
two parts called the gospel and the apostle. The first 
was complete, containing the four gospels alone; the 
second, which was incomplete, contained the Acts of 
the Apostles and Epistles, i.e., thirteen letters of Paul, 
one of Peter, one of John, and the Revelation. How 
and where this canon originated is uncertain. ' By de- 
grees it was added to and definitely fixed; so that 
2 * from the end of the fourth century downwards we 
generally find the same books included in the New Tes- 
tament which now form its canon.' The choice of 
books was in the main undoubtedly determined by 
2< apostolic authority '' and ~ the example and influence 
of churches to which the writings had been formerly 
addressed. ' 

Criticism of the Bible is sometimes distin- 
guished as either lower or higher 3 < When this 

distinction is employed, by the lower criticism is meant 
the study which has to do with the text of the Biblical 
writings, that is, with the form of words in which the 
author left these writings and with its best possible re- 
production as a basis of grammatical and lexical inter- 
pretation. By the higher criticism is meant that study 
which tries to reproduce the influences and circumstan- 
ces out of which the Biblical books arose, and thus ex- 
hibit them as true children of their own time. It is 
therefore the very laudable effort of this higher criticism 
to live over again, as faithfully and vividly as possible, 
the real life of the writers, and to understand what they 
wrote by understanding how, and under what circum- 
stances they came to write as they did. ' Lower crit- 

i Smith Davidson. 

2 Frederick Bleek. 

3 Prof. Ladd. 

82 



icism ' * is not lower in the sense that it is inferior to 
higher criticism, but lower because it deals with the 
problems that come first.' u Higher criticism deals 
with the literary qualities ' after the true text has been 
established. 

With reference to the Pentateuch higher criti- 
cism has established the following results. — It has 

shown that the so called five books of Moses with Josh- 
ua form one whole, that it is therefore more correct to 
speak of the 2 Hexateuch than of the Pentateuch, that 
in the main the Levitical law and connected parts of the 
Pentateuch were not written until the fall of the kingdom 
of Judah, that the Pentateuch in its present compass 
was not accepted as authoritative until the reformation 
of Ezra, that the Mosaic history as we have it is not the 
starting point for the history of ancient Israel but for the 
history of post-exilic Judaism, that the Pentateuch and 
historical books of the Bible are 3 <very composite 
structures in which old narratives occur imbedded in later 
compilations, and groups of old laws are overlaid by 
ordinances of comparatively recent date,' that 3 < instead 
of the whole Pentateuchal law having been given to 
Israel before the tribes crossed the Jordan, that law 
really grew up little by little from its Mosaic germ, 
and did not attain its present form till the Israelites 
were the captives or the subjects of a foreign power. ' 
That the version of the law which is recorded in the 
last book of the Pentateuch was really the earliest, and 
the laws of the preceding books were actually the latest 
to be enacted, that the latest redaction of the Pentateuch 

i Prof. Briggs. 

2 Six-fold book. 

3 W- Robertson Smith. 

83 ■•_.__ 



and of all the historical books probably l * does not 
everywhere proceed from the same hand, but all dates 
from the same period, that of the Babylonian exile. ' 

Higher criticism shows that the Pentateuch is 
not all of Mosaic and pre -exilic origin 2 < The 

result has been, and to say this is only to state a mat- 
ter of fact, that with very few exceptions anywhere, 
and with almost no exceptions in those places where 
the Old Testament is studied with most freedom and 
breadth of learning, the whole world of scholars has 
abandoned the ancient tradition that the Pentateuch in 
any such form as we now have it was the work of 
Moses.' 3 < Nowhere in the canonical books of the Old 
Testament itself, where the expression the 4 'Thorah, ' or 
book of the Thorah, the Thorah of God, the Thorah of 
Moses, is used, is the writing there intended equivalent 
with the Pentateuch in its present plan, composition 
and conclusion.' Also the fact that our Lord and his 
apostles, whose exalted object was practical, entertained 
the popular conception that the Thorah was the work of 
Moses has no weight against the results of modern 
scholarship. Critical investigation as to Moses' share in 
the composition of the Pentateuch 3< is left free as far as 
New Testament statements are concerned. ' 

The first five books of the Bible are found to be 2 < a 
composite writing into which several important docu- 
ments have been incorporated. ' During recent years, 
a « the most painstaking and minute analysis has repeat- 
edly been made of the contents of the entire Pentateuch 

i Wellhausen. 
2 Prof. Ladd. 
; Delitzsch. 
4 Law. 

8 4 



(including also the book of Joshua), and an almost 
unanimous agreement reached among Old Testament 
scholars as to the existence of such different documents, 
and within certain comparatively narrow limits, as to 
how they are to be marked off. ' 

We may here generally and briefly indicate 1 < the 
three main component parts of the Hexateuch. ' ' 'From 
this whole it is most easy to detach the book Deuter- 
onomy. Of the other elements, that which has the 
most marked individuality is the work of the 'Elo- 
hist, ' called the Priestly Code. ' 'This too, like Deuter- 
onomy, is a law-book, but it has an historical setting. 
Its main stock is Leviticus, with the cognate parts of 
the adjacent books, Exod. XXV-XL (except chapters 
XXX1I-XXX1V) and Numbers I-X, XV-XIX, XXV-XXX 
VI, (with some inconsiderable exceptions). The Priest- 
ly Code is characterized by a marked predilection for 
numbers and measures, for arrangement (titles to sec- 
tions) and formality of scheme, by the poverty and 
inflexibility of its language, by standing repetitions of 
certain expressions and phrases such as are not else- 
where found in old Hebrew. Thus its distinguishing 
marks are very pronounced, and can always be recog- 
nized without difficulty. If now Deuteronomy and the 
Priestly Code are successively subtracted, the Jehovistic 
history-book remains, distinguished from both the others 
by the fact that it is essentially narrative and not law, 
and by the pleasure it takes in bringing out details of 
the historic tradition. The beautiful patriarchal history 
belongs almost entirely to this document and forms 
the most characteristic part of it. Legislative elements 
are incorporated in it only at one point where they 

i Prof. Jules Wellhausen. 

85 



naturally fall into the historical context, viz., in connec- 
tion with the law-giving on Sinai (Exod. XX-XX11I, 
XXXIV).' 

In Genesis the first account of creation and the sec- 
ond of the patriarchal genealogies belong to the Elohist; 
while the second account of the creation, the story of 
the fall of man, and the first of the patriarchal geneal- 
ogies belong to the Jehovist. In the account of the 
deluge the two documents instead of lying side by side 
in continuous pieces forming distinct narratives, are 
woven together into a kind of Mosaic forming a single 
narrative. With the three main documents of which 
we have been speaking, 1( other smaller documents, and 
also oral traditions, ancient songs, scraps of history, 
groups of laws, separate legal enactments have been 
woven in. The whole had already been much worked 
over by many scribes before the Hebrew manuscripts 
of the first six books reached the form in which they 
served as the basis of our present text of the Hexateuch.' 
1 ' Undoubtedly the first six books of the Bible are a 
composite literary structure the source and materials of 
which come from different times and authors; they 
could not therefore have all been the work of Moses. ' 

Nor were they all written before the exile. 2< Crit- 
icism at present fixes the date of the main bulk of the 
Pentateuch, the so called' Priestly Code, together 
with other parts 2 'at the time of the captivity and the res- 
toration under Ezra and Nehemiah. ' The priestly Code 
in the form in which we have it 3 < is the product of the 
labours of learned priests during the exile. When the 
temple was destroyed and the ritual interrupted, the old 

i Prof. Ladd. 

2 Delitzsch. 

3 Wellhausen 

86 



practices were written down that they might not be 
lost' The first who took this step l * was the priest 
and prophet Ezekiel. ' ' « Other priests followed in his 
footsteps; ani so there arose during the captivity a 
school of men who wrote down and systematized what 
they had formerly practised. When the temple was 
restored this Theocratic zeal still went on and produced 
further ritual developments in action and reaction with 
the actual practice of the new temple; the final result of 
the long continued process was the Priestlv Code. ' 

The Pentateuch is in part Mosaic in origin As 

regards Deuteronomy and the Jehovistic document there 
is tolerably complete agreement among critics that the 
former was composed in the time of Josiah and that the 
latter dates from 2 <the period of the kings and prophets 
which preceded the destruction of the two Israelite 
kingdoms by the Assyrians. ' It is also conceded that 
these two documents 2< are based upon subjects and 
materials handed down from long past ages. ' Thus the 
critic, going still further back, 2( treads the soil of a 
hoar antiquity without incurring the verdict of lack of 
scientific knowledge.' Note now that 2 'Thorahand 
Pentateuch are not identical ideas, and it was not till 
post-exilian times that their identification was arrived at. 
This is a fact of supreme importance. Its consideration 
is of itself well adapted to raise us above scruples of 
conscience with respect to the criticism of the Penta- 
teuch, and to deliver us from all sorts of inveterate 
prejudices.' For l « Moses may have been the founder 
of the Thorah though the Pentateuchal legislation was 
codified almost a thousand years later.' 

i Wellhausen. 
2 Delitzsch. 

87 



As respects the Priestly Code some of l ' its usages 
and traditions are exceedingly ancient, going back, in 
fact, to pre-Mosaic and heathenish times. ' During and 
following the exile ' « the old usages and ordinances were 
reshaped in detail, but as a whole they were not re- 
placed by new creations; the novelty lay in their being 
worked into a system and applied as a means to organ- 
ize the remnant of Israel.' From what we have 
already shown, and since it is true that some parts of 
the legislation bear the impress of Egypt, and that the 
art of writing antedates the exodus, 2 < we thence infer 
that a Mosaic Thorah is the basis of the Pentateuch. ' 
It is 2( probable that it consisted of more than the ten 
sayings of the Decalogue.' 2< Undoubtedly the unity 
of God and His worship without the medium of an image 
formed its fundamental dogma. ' 

A considerable portion of the Old Testament 
minus the Pentateuch is post-exilic in origin. 

1 < Of the 3 Hagiography by far the larger portion is de- 
monstrably post-exilic. Daniel comes as far down as 
the Maccabean wars, and Esther is perhaps even later. 
Of the prophetical literature a very appreciable fraction 
is later than the fall of the Hebrew kingdom; and the 
associated historical books date in the form in which 
we now possess them from a period subsequent to the 
death of Jeremiah, who must have survived the year 560 
B. C. for some time. Making all allowance for the older 
sources utilized and to a large extent transcribed word 
for word in Judges, Samuel, and Kings, we find that 

1 Wellhausen. 

2 Delitzsch. 

3 That portion of the Old Testament not contained in the 
Law and the Prophets. 

88 



apart from the Pentateuch the pre-exilic portion of the 
Old Testament amounts in bulk to a little more than 
half of the entire volume. All the rest belongs to the 
later period. ' 

With reference to the four Gospels higher crit- 
icism seems to have established the following 
results. — It has shown pretty conclusively that an 
original Aramaic 1 document 2 < existed before any of the 
3 synoptics;' that each one of the first three gospels 
embodies an independent Greek translation of it; that 
another Aramaic document of the words of the Lord 
2< existed before Matthew's or Luke's narrative ' as we 
have them; that these two Gospels embody the same 
or different, Greek translations of it, that other docu- 
ments or traditions 2 < exist embedded in each of the 
synoptics;' that 2 'the date of each of these parts is ear- 
lier than the date of the whole '; that < 2 if the date of 
our Matthew, or Mark, or Luke, could be exactly deter- 
mined it would by no means determine the date of the 
traditions which they contain'; that even 2( a later Gos- 
pel may retain in some cases an earlier version of the 
common tradition of the words of the Lord, ' that 4( the 
Gospel of Mark in its present form is the oldest of the 
existing Greek Gospels, ' that the apostle John spent 
the latter part of his life 5 < in Ephesus where he lived 
to an advanced age,' that 5 < Ephesus had its own tradi- 
tions about the life of Jesus, ' that 5 < the Gospel of John 

i The vernacular of the Palestinian Jews in the time of Christ 
is by many writers called Aramaic. 

2 Ency. Brit. Art. Gospels. 

3 The first three Gospels are so called because they view to- 
gether or in the main narrate the same events in the life of 
Christ. 

4 Prof. Ladd. 

5 Renan. 

8 9 



came from this city ' where there was an independent 
elaboration of Christian doctrine, that the Fourth Gos- 
pel gives evidence ! < of joint authorship or revision, ' and 
that the 3 < process of the formation of the four gospels 
was a brief one and speedily connects each one of them 
with the trusted eye-and ear-witnesses who knew the 
facts of the life of which they treat. ' 

It explains all the agreements and differences to sup- 
pose that 2 <■ each one of the first three Gospels contains 
the following classes of elements: i, material which 
comes from oral tradition that has either been fixed by 
the early preaching of the apostles and other eye-and 
ear-witnesses, or has been imparted to the author by 
verbal communication of some informant: 2, material 
from previously written documents, either our canonical 
Gospels or some one or more of the written sources 
which they have incorporated; and 3, material that 
comes from personal reflection, or is due to the linguis- 
tic or other peculiarities of the author. In other words 
the contents of these Gospels are the result of a pre- 
vious process of preaching, writing, hearing and reflec- 
ting; and they are dependent upon each other and upon 
common oral and written sources to a degree which it is 
difficult to determine. ' With reference to the Gospel 
of John, Prof. Ladd says; 'On the whole it can truth- 
fully be claimed that criticism has not overthrown the 
genuineness of the Fourth Gospel. ' Concerning this im- 
portant book our humble opinion will be stated further on. 

The Gospels are Authentic and credible though 
their genuineness may have been misunderstood. 

3 < A writing is genuine if it was written by the author 

1 Ency. Brit. Art. Gospels. 

2 Prof. Ladd. 

3 Prof. Fisher. 

90 



to whom it Is ascribed. But it is well to remark that a 
narrative may be credible or authentic, even if the ordi- 
nary view taken of its authorship is mistaken. If 
Julius Caesar's Commentaries, in which he speaks of 
himself in the third person, were to be found to have 
been written, not by him, but by an intelligent and 
truthful Roman officer who was with him through the 
Gallic wars, or even by some competent person to 
whom Caesar had related the facts, that work, al- 
though not genuine, would still be authentic. Respect- 
ing the New Testament histories, the main point to be 
first established is that they present fairly the testi- 
mony of the Apostles, the immediate companions of 
Jesus. The question of the authorship of these books 
is important, but that of their date and of other circum- 
stances relating to their origin and early reception, are 
of more vital consequence. ' 

Opal tradition was the first means of diffusing* 
the gospel history ' « It has been remarked a thous- 
and times that the strength of man's memory is in 
inverse proportion to the habit of writing. ' In the Rab- 
binical schools of Jesus' time the scholar had to depend 
entirely on this faculty. He was expected to 2< know 
the whole mass of tradition down to his day by heart. ' 
2 < To forget a single word he had heard from his teacher 
was an inexpiable crime on the part of a scholar. ' No 
dDubt the chosen, who habitually sat at the feet of the 
Master, felt a like responsibility as disciples; so that 
they were able at any time to repeat his teaching and 
in after years to reproduce his biography. They felt 
no necessity for writing those things which they repeat- 

i Renan. 
2 Geikie. 

91 



ed every day. ] * Thus it was that until the middle of 
the second century the words of Jesus continued to be 
cited from memory, often with considerable variations. ' 
No one felt obliged to have recourse to the written 
text. ' ' The living tradition was the great well from 
which all alike drew/ 

The early history of Christianity teaches that 
the four gospels are of Apostolic authority 
though not exclusively of apostolic origin ! < As 

those who had directly received the divine words were 
dying day by day, and as many words and anecdotes 
seemed likely to be lost, the necessity for writing them 
down made itself felt. On various sides little collec- 
tions were made.' These ''were a species of pam- 
phlets, of sentences and parables without much order, 
written in the language of Jesus himself, the vulgar 
tongue of Palestine, the Syro-Chaldaic, a sort of mix- 
ture of Hebrew and Aramaic' ' 'According to cer- 
tain appearances the Apostle Matthew composed one 
of these memoirs' or primitive collections. 

We come now to the question of the origin of the 
four gospels that have generally been accepted. Apart 
from their titles, the first two say nothing concerning 
their authors; the third speaks of its author only at the 
outset, but does not give his name; the fourth often 
mentions a disciple, whom Jesus loved, and speaks of 
him as the truthful testifier and writer of the things it 
contains. In all the other Christian literature prior to 
120 A. D. the four gospels are not mentioned nor ex- 
actly quoted. Statements coincident in substance with 
many passages in them occur as authoritative Christian 
teaching, but they evidence nothing against their hav- 

i Renan. 

Q2 



ing come from the oral tradition at the basis of the four 
gospels. Among the first who speak of any of the 
texts of our evangelists is Papias, bishop of Hierapolis 
in Phrygia near Ephesus. Between i 30 and 140 A. D. 
this apostolic Father wrote a book entitled * Interpreta- 
tion of our Lord's Declarations.' He received the dec- 
larations of the apostles from those who were in com- 
pany with them. When he had opportunity he always 
made it a point to enquire what was said by Andrew, 
Peter or Philip, what by Thomas, James, John, Mat- 
thew or any other of the disciples of our Lord. 

Respecting the first two gospels this zealous truth- 
seeker thus states what he received from John the 
Presbyter, disciple of John the apostle. ! < Mark being 
the interpreter of Peter, what-so-ever he recorded he 
wrote with great accuracy, but not however, in the 
order in which it was spoken or done by our Lord, for 
he neither heard nor followed our Lord, but as before 
said, he was in company with Peter, who gave him 
such instruction as was necessary, but not to give a 
history of our Lord's discourses; wherefore Mark has 
not erred in anything by writing some things as he has 
recorded them; for he was carefully attentive to one 
thing, not to pass by anything that he heard, or to 
state anything falsely in these accounts, ' Of the First 
Gospel Papias says: ' < Matthew composed his history 
in the ] Hebrew dialect, and every one translated it as 
he was able. ' 

Between 145 and 147 A. D. Justin Martyr wrote 
his two < Apologies, ' or defences of Christianity, and 
the < Dialogue with Trypho, ' a Jew. The sources 

1 Eusebius. 



93 



from which Justin draws his accounts of the life and 
teachings of Jesus he styles memoirs, or memoirs of 
the Apostles. Sometimes he calls them Gospel, some- 
times Gospels. He says: ! < The Apostles in the me- 
moirs composed by them, which are called Gospels, 
have thus delivered unto us what was enjoined upon 
them. ' In one place referring to an incident in Mark, 
he calls the source of his information the memoirs of 
Peter. The second Gospel 2< as we know from other 
sources, was not unfrequently called Peter's. ' In an- 
other place referring to an incident in Luke, we find 
that Justin does not hold to the strictly Apostolic author- 
ship of the memoirs, but asserts that they were written 
1 « by the apostles and by those who attached them- 
selves to them.' These memoirs were admitted by 
Christians generally and read in the public services. 
1 ' On the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in 
the country gather together to one place, and the 
memoirs of the Apostles or the writings of the prophets 
are read.' 2 < The reference to the contents of the 
memoirs in Justin are very numerous. When they are 
brought together they make up a pretty full account of 
the events in the life of Jesus, and of his sayings. 
They correspond to the statements of the canonical 
Evangelists. A large part of the matter accords with 
what we find in Matthew and Luke; a small portion of it 
is found in Mark alone; and there are not wanting strik- 
ing correspondences to passages occurring exclusively in 
John. ' 

We have now to state that these quotations are not 
verbally accurate. It is claimed by eminent critics that 



i First Apology. 
2 Prof. Fisher. 



94 



'' ■ for Justin's purpose there was no occasion that they 
should be, ' and that they ' ' are not more free, as to 
their form, than are his references to Old Testament 
passages whose text had for centuries been fixed. ' On 
the other hand the want of verbal agreement with our 
texts in these quotations from the memoirs is such that 
critics of equal eminence believe the materials of Chris- 
tian tradition had not yet set into their final form. 
However we maintain that though they may not then 
have had all their name, fixity, and definiteness, yet, as 
Baur says, the thing was there. 

The Muratorian fragment (170 A. D.) mentions the 
Gospel of Luke as the Third and speaks of his writing 
it in his own name after St. Paul had chosen him. 
The same document also says that the apostle John 
wrote a Gospel. Theophilus, bishop of Antioch, who 
wrote between 170 and 180 A. D., is said to be the 
first writer who mentions John as the author in connec- 
tion with a passage quoted from our Fourth Gospel. 

The ancient church historian Eusebius, drawing from 
sources as primitive as any to which we have alluded, 
informs us that Matthew 'having first proclaimed the 
gospel in Hebrew, when on the point of going also to 
other nations, committed it to writing in his native 
tongue, and thus supplied the want of his presence to 
them by his writings'; that the hearers of Peter 'per- 
severed in every variety of' entreaties to solicit Mark ' 
his companion, that he should leave them a monument 
of the doctrine orally communicated, in writing, and 
finally prevailed with the man, and thus became the 
means of that history which is called the Gospel ac- 
cording to Mark'; that Luke, « in order to free us from 
the uncertain suppositions of others, in his own gospel, 

1 Prof. Fisher. 

95 



delivered the certain account of those things, that he 
himself had fully received from his intimacy and stay 
with Paul, and also, his intercourse with the other 
apostles '; that after Matthew, Mark, and Luke had 
already published their gospels, « John, who during all 
this time was proclaiming the gospel without writing, 
at length proceeded to write it on the following occa- 
sion. ' The three gospels previously written having 
been handed to him, « he admitted them, giving his 
testimony to their truth, ' but thought < there was want- 
ing in the narrative the account of the things done by 
Christ, among the first of his deeds, and at the com- 
mencement of the gospel.' l < All early writers agree 
that John wrote after the first three Evangelists and 'in- 
tended his work to be supplementary to theirs. ' 

Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, in his Work against here- 
tics, written about 180 A. D., says that Matthew is- 
sued a written Gospel among the Hebrews in their 
own dialect while Peter and Paul were preaching at 
Rome and laying the foundation of the church; that 
after their departure, Mark the disciple and interpreter 
of Peter, did also hand down to us in writing what had 
been preached by him; that Luke also, the companion 
of Paul, recorded in a book the Gospel preached by 
him; that afterwards John, the disciple of the Lord, 
who also leaned upon his breast, did himself publish a 
Gospel during his residence in Ephesus. This is a 
part of the early tradition concerning the Four Gospels. 

The Second and Third have always been considered 
authentic enough as coming from the companions of 
the Apostles. The first no doubt contains as well as 
other material from Apostolic sources, the primitive 
collection of the words and deeds of Jesus composed 

i Bleek. 

96 



by Matthew. This and the other principal documents, 
incorporated in our Synoptics, were composed so early 
that they must embody the Gospel story comparatively 
unimpaired by traditional transmutation. As respects 
the Fourth Gospel the Muratorian Fragment says «' that 
being requested by his fellow disciples and bishops to 
write, John desired them to fast for three days and then 
to relate to one another what revelation each had re- 
ceived either for or against the project. The same night 
it was revealed to Andrew, one of the apostles, that 
while all called the past to mind or while all revised, 
John should write everything in his own name.' This 
account 1 < curiously agrees with a passage in the Gos- 
pel itself which implies that others besides the author 
were revising or otherwise assisting in the work: " This 
is the disciple which testifies of these things and wrote 
these things: and we know that his testimony is true." 
If the Apostle had helpers, or if the Fourth Gospel 
was written by one or more of his immediate disciples, 
such as Aristion or the Presbyter John, it is still the 
the Evangelist's tradition, the Gospel according to St. 
John, and need not on account of such authorship be 
any less authentic. We may be certain 2< that the 
image of Jesus as portrayed in the Gospels resembles 
the original in all essential particulars. ' But it would 
be going too far to assert that there have been no errors 
in translation and transmission, no later interpolations 
and mythical additions. So every portion of the Gos- 
pel must stand the test of scholarly criticism. 

Some of the consequences of the higher crit- 
icism of the Bible are the following' Our doc- 
trines and theology must all be accommodated to the 

i Ency. Brit. 

2 Renan. 

97 



facts which the scientific study of the Scriptures has 
brought to light. False theories about the Bible must 
be abandoned. The doctrine of verbal inspiration and 
inerrancy of the Scriptures must be given up. Irre- 
spective of the names of holy men, we must learn to 
recognize, by reason and affection, the truth contained 
in the sacred book. The Bible has been lifted out of 
the misty valley of superstition and placed on the sun- 
ny height of truth. No one need now be led to twist 
his intellect awry, violate the morality of common sense, 
and suppress the truth in order to appear to get over 
Biblical difficulties. No one need now be led to main- 
tain that the book's alloy is gold. And its pure gold 
shines brighter now as we separate it from the alloy. 

Higher criticism has not done any wrong to the 
Bible, but the contrary The book is not less, but more, 
reverenced by us, now that it no longer makes impos- 
sible claims on our belief. The critical and careful lay- 
ing aside of that which we found mistaken, temporary, 
and local in it, has brought out more clearly than before 
that which is divine, spiritual, and permanent in it. 
And the historical record, freed from the superstitious 
claims made for it, has given up that which is true in it 
and become of the greatest possible interest and value.' 

Further higher criticism makes it incumbent on us to 
judge as to what is permanent or not, divine or not, 
necessary to salvation or not, in the Bible by the mor- 
al consensus of the time in which we live, a consensus 
which has been developed by the slow action of Chris- 
tianity upon the world, ' and which is in itself the work 
of the divine spirit of God on humanity. Any plain 
contradiction of this consensus, whether in faith or mor- 

i Stopford A. Brooke. 

9 8 



als, in the Bible or out of it, cannot be of divine or 
permanent value. To deny that this standard is of 
God and authoritative is practical atheism. 

God reveals His truth to all nations and men 
in proportion to their ability to receive it — ' 'For 
a revelation of spiritual facts two things are needed : 
First, a Divine truth; next, a spirit which can receive 
it.' There is no spiritual Grace that is limited to any 
person or people. God is the God of all, and the Father 
of all, and what He has, He has for all. His truth looks 
with unspeakable attraction and makes its binding ap- 
peal to all free souls. It is revealed to all in proportion 
as they draw near to the beauty of holiness. And it 
has been received and expressed more or less clearly 
and fully by faithful, heroic, and holy men in all lands 
and in all historic time. 

Greek and Roman sages taught the golden 
rule. — Isocrates taught; 2 < Be such a son to your par- 
ents as you would desire your sons to be to you. ' 
2 < Be such judges to me as ye would think best to 
have yourselves.' 2 < What you would be angry to 
suffer from others that do not to others. ' Aristotle be- 
ing asked how we should behave to our friends said, 
2 < as we should desire them to behave to us. ' Point- 
ing out the easiest way to confer a benefit Seneca said 
2< give just as we should prefer to receive.' To enjoy 
and keep our friends Epictetus said; 2( we must treat 
them just as we wish them to treat us. ' 

Hillel taught the golden rule in its negative 
form. — This learned Jewish Rabbi flourished about 50 
B. C. An inquirer went to him and asked to be taught 

1 F. W. Robertson. 

2 Wetstein's Commentary. 

99 



the law in a few brief words. The sage said; '' What- 
soever thou wouldst that men should not do to thee, 
that do not thou to them. ' 

Confucius taught the golden rule — 2 <We find it 
repeatedly in the Analects, the Doctrine of the Mean, 
and the Great Learning. Tsze-kung once asked him if 
there were one word which would serve as a rule of 
conduct for all the life; and he replied: " Is not recip- 
rocity such a word? — What you do not want done to 
yourself, do not do toothers." The rule had for him 
not only a negative, 2< but also a positive form.' 2 <He 
was unable, he said, to take the initiative in serving his 
father as he would require his son to serve him; and 
so of the other relations between ruler and minister, 
elder brother and younger, friend and friend. ' 

Jesus taught the golden rule emphatically and 
comprehensively. — He said: 'All things whatsoever 
ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to 
them. ' 

Lao-tsze taught to return good for evil He 

said; 2 'It is the way of Tao (Reason) to recompense 
injury with kindness.' 2 < The sentiment about return- 
ing good for evil was new in China, and originated 
with Lao-Tsze. ' This sage was contemporary with 
Confucius. 

Buddha taught universal love — His disciple was 
to 3< let his mind pervade the whole wide world, above, 
below, around, and everywhere, with heart of love, far- 

i E. H.Plumptre, D. D. 

2 Prof. James Legge. 

3 Rhys Davids. 

IOO 



reaching, grown great and beyond measure. ' ' ' This 
love enfolds in its ample embrace not only the brethren 
and sisters of the new faith, not only our neighbors, 
but every being that has life. As a mother, even at 
the risk of her own life, protects her son, her only son, 
so let a man cultivate goodwill without measure to- 
ward all beings, unhindered love and friendliness to- 
ward the whole world. ' 

Jesus taught a comprehensive, holy, and prac- 
tical love According to the Master the greatest 

commandment of all is: 4 Thou shalt love the Lord thy 
God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with 
all thy mind, and with all thy strength. ' * The second 
is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.' 
1 This is my commandment, that ye love one another, 
as I have loved you. ' 'As the Father hath loved me 
so have I loved you. ' < Greater love hath no man 
than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. ' 
With our Lord, love is inclusive of obedience to God, 
moral worth, and self-sacrificing service to mankind. 

Jesus in his doctrine of returning good for 

evil is superior to Confucius Lao-tsze had said : 

' Return good for evil. ' 2 <Some one of Confucius' 
school heard the maxim, and being puzzled by it, con- 
sulted the master. He also was puzzled, formed a 
syllogism in his mind about it, and replied, "What then 
will you return for good? Recompense injury with 
justice, and return good for good." ' 

Jesus says: < Love your enemies, bless them that 
curse ycu, do good to them that hate yOL, and pray for 

t Rhys Davids. 

2 Prof. James Legge. 

IOI 



them which despitefully use you, and persecute you, 
that ye may be the children of your Father which is in 
heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and 
on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the 
unjust. ' * Be ye therefore perfect even as your Father 
which is in heaven is perfect. ' 

In his fearless enunciation of truth Jesus is 
superior to Confucius. — The < Spring and Autumn ' 
is regarded as Confucius' greatest achievement. An 
eminent Chinese scholar, Kung-yang, who commented 
on it and supplemented it within a century after its com- 
position says: ''The "Spring and Autumn'' conceals the 
truth out of regard to the high in rank, to kinship, and 
to men of worth.' ''This concealing covers all the 
ground embraced in our three English words, ignoring, 
concealing, and misrepresenting. ' 1 often wish, says 
Dr. Legge, that I could cut the knot by denying the 
genuineness and authenticity of the 'Spring and Autumn' 
as we now have it; but the chain of evidence that 
binds it to the hand and pencil of Confucius in the close 
of his life is very strong. 

No such charge can be made against Christ. He 
did not spare wickedness in high places. 2 < Since the 
world began, there have been no such scathing denun- 
ciations as he uttered against the Pharisees and Scribes, 
uttered to their very face and in the hearing of the 
populace, though he knew all the while that they had 
power to put him to death.' 

In his doctrine of the Deity Jesus is superior 

to Buddha It is the teaching of the latter 3< that all 

things, all beings are impermanent'; that there is not 

i Dr. Legge. 

2 Rev. A. W. Momerie. 

3 Rhys Davids. 

102 



1 a single exception to this invariable rule'; that ]< no 
creature, no creator, no existence of any kind is ' ' other 
than a temporary collocation of its component parts, 
fated inevitably to be dissolved. ' ' ' The Gods are but 
beings, living under brighter, happier, conditions than 
men. They, too, have forms, invisible to mortal ken. 
They, too, are compound things, like everything else; 
Their heavens will be rolled up as a garment, and they 
themselves shall be dissolved.' A part of Buddha's 
doctrine is: ' ' Trouble not yourselves about the Gods. ' 
And ^for the first time in the history of the world he 
proclaims a salvation which each man can ' < gain for 
himself, and by himself, in this world, during this life, 
without any the least reference to God, or to Gods, 
either great or small.' 

Jesus was always doing the will of one greater, 
better, wiser, and mightier than himself. He says: <My 
Father is greater than 1. ' ' Why callest thou me good? 
There is none good but One that is God. ' < Of that 
day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of 
heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. ' < 1 can of 
my own self do nothing.' Jesus taught the spirituality 
and paternity of the Deity. He said: < God is spirit: 
and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit 
and in truth. ' And no word it seems, was oftener on 
the Master's lips than < my Father. ' The life of 
Christ was in complete accord with God, was one with 
Him in purpose and in work. Hence he could say: < 1 
and my Father are one,' and pray that all his followers 
might be one even as he and his father were one. 

In his doctrine of immortality Jesus is super- 
ior to Buddha. — It is a peculiarity of the system of 
i Rhys Davids. 

. 103 



the latter ' < that it swept away from the field of its vis- 
ion the whole of the great soul-theory' and taught that 
there is not inside the bodily form of man any abiding 
principle, any self that survives the dissolution of its 
case or sheath. Buddha ! < held that after the death of 
any being, whether human or not, there survived 
nothing at all but that being's Karma, the result, that is, 
of its mental and bodily actions. ' l < In no case is there, 
therefore, any future life in the Christian sense.' 
Nirvana, Buddha's state of bliss, is an inward condition 
attainable in this life, and ( is the going out or extinction 
of craving and the fires of lust, hatred, and delusion.' 
The Karma of any one dying before reaching this state 
of happiness is again individualized or inherited by a 
new being and continues on in the endless and baneful 
round of existence. But the death of the disciple who 
has attained this blissful state is the cessation of not 
only his conscious being, but also of his Karma. And 
from his existence and its result himself and the world 
are forever free. Such annihilation is Buddha's goal. 
He teaches; ^Disturb yourself not by curiosities or 
desires about any future existence'; and considers the 
nourishing of any hope of continued individuality after 
death as ' < worse than unfounded, ' ' < a fetter, ' J « a 
taint, ' ' ' and a delusion. ' 

Jesus teaches that there is an immortal life, that in 
the resurrection world all the departed live unto God 
and are His children. And the Master has left us these 
sacred and consoling words: ' Let not your heart be 
troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In 
my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, 
I would have told you* I go to prepare a place for you. 

i Rhys Davids. 

104 



And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come 
again and receive you unto myself; that where 1 am, 
there ye may be also. ' < Let not your heart be 
troubled, neither let it be afraid. ' 

In the robust practicalness of his teaching" and 
example Jesus is superior to Buddha. — The latter 
teaches; ' < Full of hindrances is household life, a path 
defiled by passion: free as the air is the life of him who 
has renounced all worldly things. How difficult it is 
for the man who dwells at home to live the higher life 
in all its fulness, in all its purity, in all its bright per- 
fection! Let me then cut off my hair and beard, let 
me clothe myself in the orange-colored robes, and let 
me go forth from a household life into the homeless 
state! Then before long, forsaking his portion of wealth 
be it great or be it small; forsaking his circle of relatives, 
be they many or be they few, he cuts off his hair and 
beard, he clothes himself in the orange-colored robes 
and he goes forth from the household life into the 
homeless state.' Undoubtedly l < a spirit of renuncia- 
tion of the world filled the minds both of Buddha him- 
self and of his first disciples. ' 

But it was quite otherwise with Christ. His quest 
of God was not a flight from man. His disciple was 
not to robe himself in any particular vestment, nor 
forsake home and household duties, nor abandon the 
world and live the life of a recluse, but he was to act 
out the law of holiness amid the throng and press of 
daily cares and possibilities of wrong-doing. 

In the life of Jesus we see the submission of a most 
heavenly spirit to the severest burdens of the flesh. 
It is the peculiarity of his greatness that it penetrated 

i Rhys Davids. 

105 



to the humblest wants and walks of life. He went 
directly to them, lived wholly in them, scattering glo- 
rious deed and sacred truth along the hidden by-paths 
and in the humblest recesses of our mortal existence, 
blessing the child, serving the beggar and the widow, 
healing the leprosy of both body and soul, and kneeling 
to wash even the traitor's feet. !< What wonder that 
when he had been ensphered in the immortal world, he 
appeared to the affectionate memories of men as a 
divine being who had disrobed himself of rightful glory 
to take pity on their sorrows, and had put on for the 
gladness of praise the garment of heaviness?' 

In his consciousness and expression of the 
Divine Being Jesus is superior to all other teach- 
ers It may be safely said that no one has ever so felt 

within his soul the living God, that no one has ever so 
intimately conversed with Divine realities, that no one 
has ever in devout and dutiful life so expressed the 
Divine character, as did the Son of Man. Jesus was 
ever conscious of the Divine presence. He found his 
God within him. He drew his inspiration directly and 
naturally from the original source. He walked in no 
borrowed light. He drank the living water. His life 
was one of constant communion with the Father. 

Once in history God not only simply visited a soul 
but wholly occupied it. He who lives in us in propor- 
tion to our purity of heart did so fill a finite nature as to 
perfectly express through it His love, His purity, and 
the beauty of His holiness, the manifold glories of His 
character. ' < As the heavens declare the dimensions of 
His outer glory, the Son of Man shows forth the colour 
i James Martineau- 

106 



of His inner spirit. * Jesus felt and expressed the qual- 
ity of the all-pervading Divine life, but its quantity was 
not all within him. 

God did not so dwell in the soul of Jesus and in the 
villages of Galilee as to be in the least withdrawn from 
any other soul or spot in this vast universe. The Infi- 
nite cannot become finite. The mighty ocean cannot 
turn into one of its own mountain streams. '* In ex- 
cluding all but himself from the spirit of Christ, and 
permitting neither shade nor flaw in the clearness of 
his image there, God did not vacate any other medium 
of expression, or prejudice his living agency in any 
portion of space or thought. No star throughout the 
firmament missed him the more, that he so purely 
shone in that fair life. No sorrowing heart cried to 
him in vain, because the angel of consolation was 
watching in Gethsemane. No guilty will was left 
without his warning look, because he was in the desert 
strengthening his holy one to triumph over temptation. 
From not a place, not a moment, not a creature, did 
the Divine tide ebb to make the flood that rose within 
the soul of Christ. ' 

Jesus is the greatest teacher The sum of all of 

importance that the other teachers taught is found in 
the teachings of Christ alone. What is good in the 
others is more full and complete in him. What is 
wrong in them is corrected in him. What is defective 
in them is supplied in him. His superiority has been 
recognized by the greatest intellects that have lived 
since his advent, no matter what their position towards 
Christianity. 2 <Weall know how lowly a reverence 

i James Martineau. 
2 Geikie. 

107 



with the living God must know them from his own 
findings, and in a sense that is strictly true be as their 
original discoverer. No flood of light can be poured 
upon a soul, that will render unnecessary the strength- 
ening discipline of wrestling with powers of darkness, 
and putting forth inward might against unlawful domin- 
ion. Witness the prayers, the retreats and agonies, 
the victories through faith and trouble of spirit, even to 
his last hour, of ' the Son of Man. ' < No really noble 
dream of heavenly rest is permitted to a soul that has 
not wrought its way to that high conception, and 
through cherished purities and self-denying efforts 
formed acquaintance with perfection.' He who said: 
' Seek and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened 
unto you;' himself- sought, and found; knocked, and 
experienced the beatific vision. 

1 < To establish filial relations of the spirit of man with 
the Spirit of God is the one purpose of Revelation. 
Where that relation is established salvation, the health 
of the soul, is established; for our spiritual life is the life 
of God in the soul of man. And how does God in 
Christ declare His purpose and invite His children to 
His fellowship? By the most direct means — by show- 
ing one human spirit, in these relations, and proclaim- 
ing to mankind, " This is my beloved Son, in whom 1 
am well pleased, hear ye him." The question was, 
and .is, How is human nature related to God, and what, 
according to the demands of that relation, ought man 
to be? And God answers the question in a Son of Man 
who was a 2 Son of God, leading a human life on earth 

i Rev. John Hamilton Thorn, 

2 The Sonship emphasized in the N. T. is one of obedience 
or character, andean be shared by us. As many as received 
him, to them gave he power to become the Sonsof God. 

I 10 



true at all points of present obedience and of prophetic 
trusts to his Divine lineage. And by this method of 
God Christ is more than a revealer of Truth; he is a 
quickener of life/ 

Jesus did extraordinary things. — We are not 

bound to believe all the events commonly called mira- 
cles actually occurred. On the other hand we have no 
ground for making the sweeping assertion that none of 
them ever took place. The possible, probable, and 
reasonable is to be received if well authenticated in 
every way. Writers have too much affirmed the 
supernaturalness of these events and their antagonism 
to the established course of nature. We have not yet 
fathomed the forces of nature including the powers of 
man. So no one has a right to affirm that the great 
majority of these wondrous works recorded in the N. 
T. are supernatural and superhuman. ] < Beyond na- 
ture, beyond and above the nature that we know, 
they are, but not contrary to it. ' ' ' The unnatural, 
the contrary to order, is of itself the ungodly, and can 
in no way be affirmed of a Divine work. ' There are 
different grades or degrees of the natural. The oper- 
ation of both the Divine and the human will is natural. 
Both may be exercised in naturals higher than the 
usual and ordinary. 

The Father Who dwelt in the Christ did the extra- 
ordinary works attributed to Jesus. And what may 
not the finite or human will do when aided by Divine 
power. 2 i The influence of man upon man, or the 
working of spirit upon spirit and matter is an indeter- 
minate element. It is prior to observation impossible to 

i Trench. 

2 Bishop Westcott. 

I II 



determine what varying effects may thus be produced. 
Experience alone can determine in each instance what 
phenomena may be produced by the human will; and 
the vast range of the power of will and the unknown 
depths of its relations, suggest the possibility of an 
almost infinite variety of results produced by its activity 
under new conditions. From time to time we are 
startled by occurrences which reveal a power of one 
mind over another, or of the mind over the body which 
seems to be practically indeterminate. In these cases 
then there is (it may be said) a natural opening for mira- 
cles: they have a point of contact with what we ob- 
serve in the course of life. Then there is the added 
strength of personal communion with Him in Whom 
all things have their being. In this lies the possibility 
of boundless power: for when the connexion is once 
formed who can lay down the limits of what man can 
do in virtue of the communiom of his spirit with the 
infinite spirit? We believe that all the cures attributed 
to the beneficent Christ, as well as his transfiguration 
and resurrection are true, and are not without analogies 
in our own time. We believe that the faith and prayer 
cures of today, our mind cure and Christian Science, 
and other varied psychical phenomena of modern times 
are the meagre manifestations of what was so ample in 
him. 

The world needs the human Christ. — We do not 
pretend to lift the veil of mystery that has been cast 
over our Lord's personality. We shall not attempt to 
point out the place of Christ in the scale of being. But 
we affirm that if in the future it should be clearly 
shown that the accounts of his nativity are legendary, 
that his birth was natural, that he was truly man, it 

I 12 



would be very much better for Christianity. The 
writer once heaid the Rev. Phillips Brooks say in a 
sermon that he would rather give up any other side of 
Christ than the human side. But if our Lord came 
into the world as two of our Gospels teach, he had no 
proper humanity. The result of the union of human 
with human cannot be the same as that of the union 
of Divine and human. The miraculous conception of 
Jesus strikes a fatal blow at his humanity. 

But it is to be said that the accounts of the nativity 
do not appear to have belonged to the earliest Chris- 
tian tradition. John, "in whose house the mother of 
Jesus spent the evening of her life, is silent upon the 
subject of his miraculous birth. It is not mentioned in 
any of the speeches in the Acts of the Apostles. A 
knowledge of it probably never came to St Paul. It 
is not alluded to in any of the post-gospel literature of 
the New Testament. The early Ebionites, the sect of 
Jewish Christians to which the brothers of our Lord 
belonged, did not believe it. But they believed him to 
be I( ina peculiar degree the Prophet of Truth, the 
Messiah, the Son of God, the elect of God, ' and they 
attributed his dignity to his faithfulness, aspiration, 
perfection, baptism with the Holy Spirit, and ethical 
union with God. 

The infinite Being does not need, nor could he have, 
an infinite helper. All that infinity can do for us the 
Father does. And no first and only begotten son, 
though he existed before he came to earth, could ever 
do all the Father's mediatorial work. For starting at 
any point, and going only in one direction, ever along a 
straight line, he would find, however remote from each 

i Renan. 

113 



other, an infinity of worlds to visit and an eternity of 
work to do. Then who is to manifest the Father in the 
other regions of His mighty universe? God needs an 
infinite number of finite helpers to do his mediatorial 
and saving work. And the only reasonable thought 
about it all is that He raises up on each orb a holy one 
to manifest Him there. What we need and what we 
want is to see a true human nature filled with God, 
revealing his love and compassion, manifesting the true 
relation between the Divine and human, setting us in 
the true direction for the highest of all, showing us the 
approaches to our loving Father, opening our eyes to 
the possibilities of our nature, and assuring us of the 
life to come. The human Christ could not be less than 
this to us. And he would be unique enough. ''He 
that always hits the mark does not differ in kind from 
those whom he surpasses; yet if all others fall short of 
this he is unique.' 

The human Christ, having achieved what we may 
achieve, is the truest example tor us. Then « why do 
we go on looking at him as a celestial being belonging to 
another world, a passing angel cleaving with bright 
wings our earthly atmosphere, and never learn to look 
at him as he really was, the man Christ Jesus, tempted 
in all things, even as we are, touched with a feeling of 
our infirmities, encompassed by our conditions, rising, 
not without struggle, out of the trials of our humanity 
because ever listening to his Father's voice? Why do 
we not realize what he tells us of his heart's sorrows, 
loneliness, and sinkings, out of what long faintings went 
forth the cry, "My God, let this cup pass from me," 

i James Martineau. 

i Rev. John Hamilton Thorn. 

114 



and how the thought, the prayer, that gave him 
strength, (i Father! Thy will be done, " is the prayer 
that in words we utter every day. ' 

1 ' The Goodness we are to pursue and make our own 
is the goodness of Christ, the same fair human goodness 
that breathed and inspired, labored and endured in the 
Holy Land, that since then has lived in all the good and 
pure of earth. It was a very simple goodness: no 
one can mistake it; the poorest and most ignorant may 
understand and follow it. It was loving kindness and 
sweet gentleness, and the healing of sickness and sor- 
row; it was purity of heart and belief in the goodness 
of men; it was truth, and such love of truth as the 
world has not seen again ; it was the giving of truth to 
all; it was the glad acknowledgment of truth wherever 
he found it; it was the abiding of all his life in his 
Father, so that his thoughts were his Father's thoughts, 
his work and his whole being God's work and being; 
it was unbroken communion with Divine Righteousness, 
and the unbroken effort to make the communion he pos- 
sessed with God the possession of men. There, I say, 
is our ideal. ' 

Jesus recognized the great value of the human 
Soul. — He manifested a deep and lasting interest in its 
welfare. He deemed no sacrifice too great for its sal- 
vation and exaltation. He mingled with the most 
lowly of men as with friends and brothers. One of the 
many cases in which intended insult redounded to his 
glory was when by the spiritually halt and blind he 
was reproached with being the friend of publicans and 
sinners. He was the universal sympathizer. * He 
knew what was in man.' He regarded the spirit within 
as of more worth than the whole world without. 

i Stopford A. Brooke. 

115 



The great work of God in the world is the 
individuation of force. — We must remember ''that 
the forces of nature are naught else than different 
forms of the one omnipresent Divine energy.' The 
spirit of God ever energizing in the universe sends 
forth a force which in the course of cosmic time takes 
on successively higher and higher forms until at last it 
becomes an individual or person. This force at first is 
what we call physical; it is then transmuted into chem- 
ical; it next has vital properties and powers; and 
through the long lapse of ages, and under other condi- 
tions of higher and higher organization, it attains still 
higher properties and powers until in man its individua- 
tion is complete. 

Man is the greatest work of God in the world. 

The human creature is the crown and Lord of this 
earth, the acme of created mundane life. Man is the 
epitome and representation of the Divine operation 
through all the past Geok>gic ages. He is the end 
toward which all the subtile and tremendous forces on 
this planet have been working during many slow-mov- 
ing millions of years. Man's nature is so great that to 
the Creator no preparation for its existence seems 
extravagant. The long lapse of time and the vast ex- 
penditure of resources are justified by the preparation of a 
being capable of knowing God, appreciating his works, 
and appropriating his righteousness. From the first dawn 
of life we see all things working together towards one 
mighty goal, the evolution of the most exalted spiritual 
qualities which characterize humanity. All this work 
has not been done for naught. It is not all ephemeral 
Pres. LeConte. 

116 



as a bubble that bursts or a vision that fades. The 
promise of it all is the everlasting persistence of the 
soul. 

The immortality of the soul gives infinite 
value and significance to the Divinely developed 
worlds and world-systems. — All who have in a meas- 
ure mastered God's methods of working in the universe 
know that this cosmos of which our earth is a part had 
a beginning and will have an end. It is well-established 
that the moon is a dead planet; that being forty -nine 
times smaller than the earth it has cooled more rapidly; 
that the forces which laid its stratified rocks and raised 
its volcanic cones are now quiescent; that its surface is 
waterless, airless, and frigid, there being no sign of 
liquid ocean, running stream, or enveloping atmosphere; 
that it has reached its limit of consolidation and is no 
longer generating heat from within; that the degree of 
cold implied by this stoppage of consolidation immeas- 
urably exceeds anything within terrestrial experience; 
that the fierce noontide heat sent from the sun, though 
it scorch and blister the moon's rocky surface, yet 
exercises but little melting power; that with reference 
to the sun's rays an atmosphere is like a valve which 
lets water run through in one direction but not in the 
other; that from the surface of the moon on account of 
the absence of an enveloping atmosphere the solar 
radiance is immediately reflected into space as from 
the surface of a polished mirror; and that this state of 
things, now realized on the moon, will, in an unimagi- 
nably remote future, be reached upon this globe and 
all the other members of the solar system. 



117 



As the earth becomes cooler and cooler the water 
will sink deeper and deeper into its crust. And long 
before it has become cool at the center all the ocean 
will have soaked into the underlying rocks, and all 
the atmosphere will have been liquified and drunk up 
by the thirsty ground. Then death which on our 
planet treads so closely on the steps of life will have 
absolutely overtaken it and stopped the race of living 
things which now perpetually begins afresh. Then the 
chills of winter transient now will have become abiding 
and suppressed forever the flowers which now steal out 
again upon the bosom of the earth. Then the frosts of 
mortality will have arrested the life-stream of our noble 
race and terminated the existence of humanity upon 
this orb. 

The cosmic death or refrigeration of the worlds 
will be succeeded by their dissolution. The resist- 
ance, though inconceivably small, which they en- 
counter in moving through the interstellar ether will 
at last overcome their immense momentum or centrifugal 
force, and then the law of gravitation will take them 
one by one with great velocity and tremendous power 
into the sun, beginning with the nearest and ending 
with the most remote. This reunion of the planets 
with the central orb will result in a new nebula for 
future ages of evolution. 

Now 1 ' without spirit immortality this beautiful cos- 
mos which has been developing into increasing beauty 
for so many millions of years, when its evolution has 
run its course and all is over, would be precisely as if it 
had never been, an idle dream, an idiot tale signifying 

i Pres. LeConte, 



118 



nothing. 1 repeat: Without spirit-immortality the cos- 
mos has no meaning. But with it it has infinite signifi- 
cation and worth. ' 

We are environed by what may be denomina- 
ted an unseen universe — * 'Jean Paul, in one of his 

magnificent dreams, has endeavored to present to the 
mind an image of the infinite extent and fullness of the 
universe. He represents his own disembodied spirit as 
carried by thought from system to system through the 
starry skies under the conduct of some angel of light. 
Wearied at length and bowed down with the over- 
whelming sense of his littleness as he traverses the 
desolate intervals between world and world, he prays 
that he may go no further: 1 am lonely in creation: 
lonelier in these wastes. The full world is great: but 
vacancy is greater. And the answer came, In the 
sight of God there is no vacancy. Even now, O child 
of man, let thy quickened eye behold, and thy dream- 
ing heart embrace the depths of being which are around 
thee. Then his eye was opened and a sea of light 
filled all the spaces which had seemed desolate before, 
and his heart felt the presence of an unspeakable 
power, swelling in varied forms of existence around 
him. Suns and planets were seen to float as mere 
specks in the vast ocean of life which was revealed to 
him.' 

2 < Each year's discoveries show more and more con- 
clusively that the interplanetary' and interstellar 
2 ' spaces are filled with matter.' The existence of this 
ether, as it is called, is a necessary condition of the 

i Bishop Westcott. 
2 Prof. Fiske. 

119 



transmission of heat and light from the sun to the 
earth. There is no absolute void in the universe. 
Now only a very small fraction of the solar energy 
ever reaches the earth and neighbor planets. Almost 
all of it radiates into the ether. And it is not probable 
that this high-class energy which on the earth is so 
instrumental in building up forms of life, usefulness, and 
beauty, does nothing in the vast realms of ether but 
travel outwards without in the least becoming absorbed 
or changed in type. Most likely it is being gradually 
transformed into an order of things to us invisible. So 
when we cast about for some organic world where the 
soul after death may dwell encased in a finer body 
than the earthly, we perceive in the ether that al- 
ready quivers into light and electricity the possibility 
of such an existence. 

The soul will have a body in the unseen world, 

1 < Energy is always found associated with matter, never 
by itself. ' The seat and vehicle of force of all kinds is 
always and everywhere matter of some sort. So the 
soul, which is a very high form of force, cannot exist 
anywhere without a material organism. There is 
no world of psychic states alone. In the after-death 
life we are not to be unclothed but clothed upon. And 
this garment will be one of excessive tenuity. 

We are now habilimented in an unseen body. 

There is, says the apostle, not there shall be, a spirit- 
ual body. By spiritual body is meant a very refined 
and attenuated material organism. This is now latent 
within the present human frame. There is a duality in 
our corporeity. 2 < Joseph Cook quotes largely from 

i Stewart and Tait. 
2 kev. A. J. Weaver. 

120 



the latest German authors to prove that man is doubly 
organized, in other words that the body which we shall 
inhabit in the future world exists now within us, per- 
vading this body in all its parts. ' When we consider 
the different grades, properties, and powers of matter, 
we can with Dr. Thomas Young perceive the possibil- 
ity of independent worlds pervading each other unseen 
and unknown in the same place. Also we can see 
how one material organism may likewise exist within 
another. ' < We are logically constrained to admit the 
existence of some frame or organ which is not of this 
earth and which survives dissolution. ' 

In the unseen world we shall retain our iden- 
tity both psychical and physical One of the 

essential requisites of continued existence is the capa- 
bility of retaining some sort of hold upon the past. 
Now how can this be done? The answer is to be sought 
in the physical concomitants of thought. ' < Every 
thought we think is accompanied by a displacement 
and motion of the particles of the brain. ' And ' 'we find 
that in as much as thought affects the substance of the 
present visible universe it produces a material organ of 
memory. But the motions which accompany thought 
must originate in and also affect the invisible order of 
things, because in the first place the forces which cause 
those motions are derived from the unseen, and because, 
secondly, the motions themselves must act upon the 
unseen, and thus it follows that thought conceived to af- 
fect the matter of another universe simultaneously with 
this may explain a future state' in which our identity 
shall be preserved. In other words the soul now has 
i Stewart and Tait- 

121 



its seat in the unseen world. It lies further back in 
the structural depths of the invisible universe than does 
the ether or any other form of matter. And thought 
originating in the soul and working from inward to out- 
ward, must affect first the ether, then the ordinary mat- 
ter; must build up an organ of memory first in the invis- 
ible, then in the visible world; must store up the soul's 
states first in the inner ethereal body, then in the outer 
coarser covering. Thus there is a memory provided for 
the soul's use when the ether body is free to exercise 
its functions. This provides for psychical identity in 
the life to come. 

The ether body logically and actually precedes the 
other though practically their formation is simultaneous. 
The outer is the counterpart of the inner and is related 
to it somewhat as the glove is to the hand. Death is 
only the withdrawing of life from the surface, the 
throwing away of the glove. In death the outer form 
is dropped off, while the inner which resembles it, is 
retained. Thus in the future state is physical identity 
preserved. Each one retains his face and form. We 
shall know each other there. 

The Christ verily rose from the dead. — Night 

settled down upon the great tragedy on Calvary: "And 
what a night it was to those disciples who had seen 
their fondest hopes sink down that day in blood! The 
catastrophe of the crucifixion had been so sudden and 
complete that the disciples were confounded and para- 
lyzed. They were overwhelmed. They were sad and 
cast down. But ' < never was that which bore the 
outward appearance of ruin and annihilation turned into 
i Dr. Ferdinand Christian Baur. 

122 



such signal and decisive victory and so glorious a pas- 
sage into life, as in the death of Jesus. ' 

What was it that so soon raised the disciples' 
sunken faith in their master as the Messiah and gave 
it a new and mighty impulse? It was the resurrec- 
tion of Jesus and that alone. '< It is proved beyond 
all question that the Apostles and many other disci- 
ples were convinced that they had repeatedly enjoyed 
the sight of the risen Christ. . . That the Apostles should 
themselves have been deceived is impossible from their 
cause, their character, and their fate.' 2 < Nothing 
stands more historically certain than that Jesus rose 
from the dead and appeared again to his followers, or 
than that their seeing him thus again, was the begin- 
ning of a higher faith, and of all their Christian work in 
the world. ' 

St. Luke, who traces the source of all things accurately 
from the first, tells us in the Acts of the Apostles that 
Jesus showed himself alive after his passion by many 
infallible proofs. It is related in all the four Gospels 
that soon after his death the Lord manifested himself 
in various ways to his disciples. His resurrection is 
affirmed in almost all the speeches in the Acts of the 
Apostles. He appeared several times to St. Paul. 
The resurrection of Christ is mentioned in the post-gos- 
pel literature of the New Testament not far from one 
hundred times. The early Ebionites, among whom 
were the brothers of our Lord, believed it. In his epistle 
to the Galatians, St. Paul informs us that three years 
after his conversion he went up to Jerusalem to see 
Peter and abode with him fifteen days, that at that 

i Hase. 

2 Ewald. 

123 



time he also saw James, the Lord's brother, and that 
fourteen years later he returned to Jerusalem and saw 
James, Cephas, and John, and conferred with them on 
the Gospel. He who enjoyed such ample opportunities 
to ascertain what the Apostles knew about the resur- 
rection of Jesus says in his epistle to the Corinthians 
< that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: 
After that he was seen of above five hundred brethren 
at once: After that he was seen of James: Then of all 
the Apostles: And last of all he was seen of me also, as 
of one born out of due time. ' 

The resurrection of Jesus and his appearances are 
taught in the New Testament as events of the same 
kind essentially as his death and burial. The resur- 
rection is treated in the New Testament historically and 
not ideally. The literal fact of the resurrection is the 
implied or acknowledged groundwork of the Apostolic 
teaching. To preach the fact of the resurrection was 
the first function of the evangelists. All the Apostles 
were in accord with reference to the resurrection. 
Whatever else was doubted this one event was beyond 
dispute. There was no popular belief at the time which 
could have inspired the disciples with an imaginary 
resurrection. They were not predisposed to a credu- 
lous or ill-grounded belief. They were incredulous at 
first, but he overcame their incredulity. They were 
not 1 hallucinated. They saw him, conversed with 
him, ate and drank with him, handled him. 2 < One of 
them put his finger upon the print of the nails. ' Ths 
risen One appealed to the senses of the disciples in 
such variety of ways as to render the idea of illusion 

i Victims of imagination or a disordered nervous system. 
2 Prof. Fisher. 

124 



or hallucination absurd. And it was not his inner finer 
form that they perceived. This would not be palpable 
to them nor cognizable by any one of their ordinary 
senses. And it is not probable that all the eleven were 
both ' clairvoyant and clairaudient. 

Jesus resumed his crucified body and dissi- 
pated it at will. — It was in his bodily form that his 
disciples beheld him. 2 < The tomb, it must be remem- 
bered, was found empty, with the linen clothes left 
there, and the napkin folded and lying by itself. The 
body could not have been carried off by the enemies of 
Christ They would have produced it to confute the 
assertion that he had risen. It could not have been car- 
ried away and hidden by his friends, without a fraudu- 
lent intent on their part, which none at the present 
time would impute to them. ' It is clear that Jesus 
presented a real corporeity to his disciples. « Behold 
my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, 
and see: for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see 
me have. And when he had thus spoken he showed 
them his hands and his feet. And he said unto them, 
have ye here any meat? And they gave him a piece 
of a broiled fish and of a honeycomb. And he took it 
and did eat before them. ' On another occasion he said 
to Thomas ' Reach hither thy finger and behold my 
hands; and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my 
side; and be not faithless, but believing.' That the 
Lord invested himself again with his clay tenement 
accords with the accounts and explains the absence of 
the body from the tomb. This should not be hard for 
i Able to see and hear objects not present to the ordinary 



senses. 
2 Prof. Fisher. 



25 



us to believe to-day when so much is occurring on the 
border land between the two worlds. In the appear- 
ance of Christ do we not see the same process by 
which those who have gone before do now give 
tokens of their after-death existence? 

That the departed spirit, drawing material from the 
bodies of mortals near it and from the atmosphere, 
produces, under conditions which preclude fraud and 
hallucination, a simulacrum of its earthly form that can 
be seen and heard, and handled, is attested by com- 
petent and truthful witnesses all over the world to-day. 
In harmony with this law of spirit over matter, which 
is manifested in a measure in our time, we may believe 
that the strong soul of the Son of Man reassumed tem- 
porarily the old body of his passion, condensing and dis- 
solving it by volitionary effort as his purpose required. 
Christ thus took up his mortal garb, not to prove that 
all men will do so, but simply and solely to convince 
his disciples that he was yet alive, and to complete his 
revelation to them. And his resurrection has always 
been rightly regarded by his followers as proof of the 
life immortal. And when we are called to bid adieu to 
these earthly scenes, may it help us to trustfully put 
our hand into that of the summoning angel and say: 
1 < Lead on, O Messenger of God, our Father, to the 
next place whither the Divine Goodness calls us. ' 

Jesus appeared in his inner body to St. Paul. 

The fact that the Apostle in the fifteenth chapter of 
first Corinthians, in connection with Christ's appear- 
ances to the other disciples, mentions his appearance to 
himself, is no proof that the latter manifestation was 
i Thackeray. 

126 



the same in kind as were the former. At the time of 
his conversion Paul was evidently in a state of trance 
or ecstasy, and used his inner finer organs of percep- 
tion. Those with him did not hear as he heard. This 
no doubt was the same sort of manifestation that was 
afterward vouchsafed to him. He says: < When I had 
returned to Jerusalem, and while I prayed in the 
temple, I fell into a trance, and saw him saying unto 
me, Make haste, and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem : 
because they will not receive of thee testimony con- 
cerning me.' In this experience as in the other, the 
Apostle's inner finer senses were exercised and the 
Lord could appear to him in his immortal garb. With 
reference to such perception Swedenborg says: « Like 
sees like. ' And this is in harmony with the testimony 
of the seers and psychics of all ages. 

The world of the departed is near us The 

true psychologist of to-day knows that we have imme- 
diate knowledge, not of the material universe itself, 
but of the states of consciousness it causes in us. We 
seem to see a tree standing on yonder knoll or the 
radiant bow spanning the cloud, but all we directly 
perceive is a sensation in the soul. And the universe 
we immediately know is one of subjective experiences 
only. The material universe now affects the senses of 
the outer coarser organism, and the result of this 
affectation is our present world. When the soul lays 
aside this mortal frame, the universe will affect the 
senses of the inner finer body, and the result of such 
affectation will be the soul's future world. So the two 
realms of being lie closely proximate. Death is the 
opening of the door upon new realities, the beholding of 

127 



a new page of the everlasting beauty. And the after- 
death abode of the spirit is to be reached, not by trav- 
elling afar, but by having the soul made conscious of 
its presence. 

God's saving work extends into the future 
life. — We must believe this unless there is a clear rev- 
elation to the contrary. Such counter teaching we do 
not find in the Bible, not even in the parable of Dives 
and Lazarus. In the future world there are not just two 
places, one for the good and the other for the bad, sepa- 
rated from each other by a great gulf, that is yet so nar- 
row, that the denizens of one region can converse with 
those of the other. ' < It is obvious that no single detail 
of such a description can be pressed as a literal repre- 
sentation of the unseen world. ' 2 ' The main scope and 
design of the parable seems this: To hint the destruc- 
tion of the unbelieving Jews, who, though they had 
Moses and the Prophets, did not believe them. ' This 
is the view held by St. Augustine, Gregory the Great, 
Theophylact,Swedenborg, and other eminent Biblical ex- 
pounders. 

Our Lord simply uses the old familiar pagan notion 
of the unseen world to illustrate the future condition in 
this life of the unbelieving and wicked Jews. So he 
uses Beelzebub, Mammon, and other popular notions 
without believing in them literally. He says 3 'When the 
unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through 
dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he 
saith, 1 will return into my house whence 1 came out; 
and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and 
garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself 

i E. H. Plumptre, D. D. 

2 Dr. Lightfoot. 

3 Matt. XII. 

128 



seven oi her spirits more wicked than himself, and they 
enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man 
is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto 
this wicked generation. ' 

Here is imagery derived from the unseen world to 
set forth the evil state of the Jews in this life. ' 'We 
must turn to the picture drawn by the Jewish 2 historian 
of the crimes, frenzies, insanities of the final struggle 
that ended in the destruction of Jerusalem, if we would 
take an adequate measure of the last state of that wick- 
ed generation.' Now, because Jesus symbolized the 
misery of that awful time by the parable of the eight 
evil spirits, is no proof that he literally believed in such 
wholesale possession of the living by the wicked dead. 
Neither in the parable of Dives and Lazarus did he be- 
lieve literally, and wish to inculcate the familiar pagan 
notion of the unseen world with the two localities be- 
cause he used it to represent the downfall of the Jews 
and the reception of the Gentiles into the grace of the 
Gospel. 

And we must remember that the sad plight in which 
the Rich man was and into which his brethren who 
had Moses and the Prophets were to come, was in this 
world, and not final; and that St. Paul teaches that 'af- 
ter the fulness of the Gentiles be come in, all Israel 
shall be saved: even as it is written, there shall come 
out of Zion the deliverer and shall turn away ungodli- 
ness from Jacob. ' . The great gulf or chasm which in 
the future life, as in this, cannot be immediately crossed, 
is one, not of space or distance, but of character or dif- 
ferent degrees of perfection. And no sudden craving 
for help or sympathy can avail in any world to take 

i E. H. Plumptre, D. D. 

2 Josephus, 

129 



away at once the pain of sin. This must last as long 
as God wills, or until the discipline has done its work. 

The scope of Christ's Mediatorship includes the 
heavens and even the fabled underworld. All 'author- 
ity to save our humanity is given him in the heavens 
as well as on the earth. He 3 is a minister forever. He 
3 is consecrated for evermore. Because he continueth 
ever he hath a ministry that is inviolable by death. 
He in 4 the unseen world holds and exercises that more 
excellent ministry of which the service of the high priest 
on earth was a shadow and a type. In the future life 
the exalted Christ makes intercession for us. He has 
entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the pres- 
sence of God for us. And 6 there he is able to save to 
the uttermost them that draw near unto God through 
him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. 
Let no one think for a moment that Christ's ministry in 
the heavens consists only in praying for persons who are 
still here. He is ever working in that world for the 
weal of the unwell in soul who have thither gone. 

Our Lord, immediately after his death, preached to 
persons in the future life, who had died as evil doers. 
He was 7 <put to death in the flesh but quickened in the 
spirit; in which also he went and preached to the spirits in 
prison, which aforetime were disobedient, when once the 
long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while 
the ark was a preparing. ' The interpretation 8 'of (practi- 
cally) all the Fathers, and of Calvin, Luther (finally), 
Bellarmine, Bengel, and most modern scholars — refer 
this passage to what our Lord did while his body was 

i Phil. II i Eph. 1. i Col. I. 5 Rom. VIII. 

2 Matt. XXVIII. 6 Heb. IX. 

3 Heb. VII. 7 IPet. III. 

4 Heb. VIII. 8 Ellicott's Commentary. 

130 



dead.' Imprisonment implies condemnation, and con- 
demnation implies guilt, and the Christ went straight 
from his death to the guilty dead to help them. And 
wherever there is preaching there is opportunity for re- 
pentance and salvation. 

About A. D. 200 Clement, one of the great teachers 
of the Christian school in Alexandria, held that ' 'it has 
been God's fixed purpose to save the flock of men'; that 
1 'for this end the good God sent the good Shepherd;' that 
2 'the Son is the savior and lord of all; that 2 'he is the 
savior of those who have believed, because of their wish- 
ing to know, and the lord of those who have not believed, 
till, being enabled to confess him, they obtain the pecu- 
liar and appropriate boon which comes by him'; that the 
same dispensation of the Gospel obtains in Hades (the 
unseen world); that 2 'the God being good and the Lord 
powerful they save with a righteousness and equality 
which extend to all that turn to Him, whether here or 
elsewhere' ; and 'that it is not here alone that the active 
power of God is beforehand, but it is everywhere and 
always at work. ' 

As there is oneness of physical law throughout 
the universe, so there is one moral law for all worlds. 
3 'And the pure and good and true on earth is pure and 
good and true in heaven. There is one righteousness 
ever consistent with itself, for the whole universe; vin- 
dicating the same law, present with the same sanctity, 
wherever there is a will free to obey, — on the thea- 
tre of angels and in the nursery of the child, — in the se- 

1 Exhortation to the Heathen, Chap. XI. 

2 Stromata, Book VII. Chap. II. 

3 James Martineau. 



131 



cret self-denials of private life, and in the open redemp- 
tion of the world. This unity of God's moral govern- 
ment, which includes all souls in one undivided realm, 
and gives them free passports through all time and place, 
is the key and safeguard of the genuine gospel. Did 
men hold fast by this essential truth, they would nev- 
er feign for God a character they would repudiate for 
themselves; or suppose a heavenly economy unlike any 
type of beauty and rectitude revered in their human 
world; or feel it allowable, in rising to the supernatu- 
ral, to emerge into the unnatural, and confound the 
monstrous with the Divine.' In the future world, 
which is infinite, and is not divided into two localities, 
God both chastens and saves, and permits the bad to 
mingle with the good and be helped by them, just as 
the dying thief, who had only felt the first pangs of 
penitence, could be that day -with Christ in Paradise. 

The Bible does not teach endless punishment. 

1 'The English word Hell is mixed up with numberless 
associations entirely foreign to the minds of the ancient 
Hebrews.' In the Old Testament the Hebrew word 
Sheol, which in our authorized English version 2 <is ren- 
dered thirty-two times hell, twenty-nine times grave, 
and three times pit, ' does not signify a place of endless 
misery, but means simply 3< the abode of the soul after 
death, 4 <the vast, hollow, subterranean resting-place 
which is the common receptacle of the dead.' 5< No 
distinction of place is indicated in the Sheol of the O. 

i Smith's Bible Dictionary. 
2 Rev. E. E- Guild. 
3Bagster's Hebrew Lexicon. 

4 Smith's Bible Dictionary and Gesenius' Hebrew Lexicon. 

5 Robinson's Greek Lex. 

132 



T. between the righteous and the wicked.' Jacob says 
1 ' I will go down into Sheol unto my son mourning. ' 

The Greek word hades, which is the equivalent of 
the Hebrew word Sheol, and which in the N. T. * i is 
rendered ten times hell, and once grave, ' does not sig- 
nify a place of endless misery, but means simply 3 <the 
unseen world, the region or state of the dead, without 
any reference to their blessedness or misery. ' This 
place both Hebrew and Greek located under the earth. 
The soul of the Christ is spoken of as going thither at 
death and returning thence at his resurrection. 4 'His 
soul was not left in Hades neither did his flesh see cor- 
ruption. ' 

The Greek word Gehenna, which 2< is used in the 
New Testament twelve times, and is invariably ren- 
dered hell,' is the representative of the Hebrew 4 <Ge- 
Hinnom (the valley of Hinnom, sometimes of the son 
or children of Hinnom)' and which in the Old Testa- 
ment is applied to a narrow gorge on the south of Jeru- 
salem, where Solomon erected a high place for Moloch, 
where the fires of that God received the bloody offer- 
ings of infant sacrifice under Ahaz and Manasseh, 
where the reformer Josiah to pollute the place cast the 
corpses of criminals the carcasses of animals and all 
kinds of filth, where the Jews after their return from 
captivity threw all sorts of putrefying matter that de- 
filed the Holy City, and where fires were kept burn- 
ing to purify the contaminated air. The primary 
meaning, then, of Gehenna is a well-known locality 
near Jerusalem. ' 

i Gen. XXVIII. 

2 Rev. E. E. Guild. 

3 Robinson's Greek Lex. and E. H. Plumptre D. D. 

4 Acts II. 

5 E. H. Plumptre D. D. 

133 



The place is very closely connected with God's 
judgment and condemnation of the Jews in this life. 
1 'The children of Judah have done evil in my sight, 
saith the Lord: they have set their abominations in the 
house which is called by my name, to pollute it. And 
they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in 
the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their daugh- 
ters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither 
came it into my heart. Therefore, behold, the days 
come, saith the Lord, that it shall no more be called 
Tophet, nor the valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the 
valley of slaughter; for they shall bury in Tophet, till 
there be no place.' According to Josephus, at the de- 
struction of Jerusalem, when the Jews passed through 
the most soul-stirring struggle of all ancient history, 
600,000 of their dead bodies were thrown out of the 
city gates, no doubt into the valley of Hinnom, and left 
unburied. So no one can be sure that at any time 
when our Lord uses the word Gehenna he is unmindful 
of that great calamity which was so soon to come upon 
the Jews. 

But in his use of the word Gehenna the Christ 
means that great catastrophe and more besides. With 
him Gehenna fire is synonymous with everlasting 
fire, Gehenna punishment with everlasting punish- 
ment. Everlasting punishment is the punishment 
administered in his everlasting kingdom, the advent of 
which in power and glory was heralded by the destruc- 
tion of Jerusalem and the overthrow of persecuting Ju- 
daism. Now everlasting punishment is not endless 

1 Jer. VII. See also Jer. XIX. 



34 



punishment. The Hebrew word olam, which in the 
Old Testament ' 'is rendered sixty times everlasting' 
signifies 2 'future duration, unlimited, but not endless'; 
duration 3< of which the beginning or end is uncertain or 
indefinite.' The duration 3 'is to be determined from 
the nature of the subject. ' ' 'When the Old Testa- 
ment was translated from the Hebrew into the Greek 
language by the Seventy, the Hebrew word olam, when 
a noun, was rendered by the Greek word aion; when 
an adjective, it was rendered by the Greek word 
aionios. Olam, then, in Hebrew, and aion and aionios 
in Greek, are synonymous terms.' The noun aion 
means 4 'properly and literally duration, the course or 
flow of time, in various relations as determined by the 
context' 4 'Time indefinite, an age or period of the 
world.' Now the adjective aionios, which 4 'corres- 
ponds in usage to the noun aion, 'and which in the New 
Testament ' 'is rendered twenty-five times everlasting, ' 
5 'does not in itself involve endlessness, but rather dura- 
tion, whether through an age or a succession of ages; 
and is applied in the Greek version of the Old Testa- 
ment to institutions and ordinances that were confes- 
sedly to wax old and vanish away, and in the New 
Testament to periods of time that have had both begin- 
ning and ending. ' So our word everlasting means in 
the Bible just what the word aionios does, age lasting, 
time indefinite; duration the length of which is to be de- 
termined by the context and by the subject to which it 
is applied. Canaan was to be an everlasting possession 

i Rev. E. E. Guild. 4 Robinson's Greek Lex. 

Bagster's Heb. Lex. 5 E. H. Plumptre, D. b. 



3 Gesenius' Heb. Lex, 



135 



for the Hebrews, but it was taken from them. The 
Aaronic priesthood was to be an everlasting institution, 
but it was superseded. In the phrase 'everlasting 
God, ' the word everlasting means endless because ap- 
plied to a subject endless in its nature, but in the phrase 
'everlasting doors' it does not mean endless because 
the subject to which it is applied is not endless in its 
nature. In the phrase 'everlasting punishment' it does 
not mean endless because punishment in its nature is not 
endless. Punishment looks to an object beyond itself. 
It is to yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness. The 
punishment God inflicts is not vindictive but reformative. 
He chastens us for our profit, that we may be partakers 
of His holiness. 

What is true of the word everlasting is true also of 
eternal, never, forever, and forever and ever. They 
are all used to translate the same original Hebrew and 
Greek words. They do not mean endless when applied 
to punishment. The life, called eternal or everlasting, 
which the faithful have both here and hereafter, and 
which is knowledge of the only true God and his Christ, 
1 'in its nature tends to perpetuity. ' Not so the pun- 
ishment of the unfaithful. Endless punishment is 
unscriptural, unchristian, and ungodly. The pun- 
ishment God inflicts is certain; natural; in proportion to 
the guilt of the sinner; is administered through the 
laws of nature, society, and the human soul, in this life 
and in the next if needed; and is corrective and disci- 
plinary. In the Bible the word fire is frequently found 
as a symbol of severe chastening whereby God tries 
and purifies the faith and hearts of men. The allusions 
in the second Epistle of Peter and that of Jude to sin- 

i E. H. Plumptre. 

136 



ful angels reserved in everlasting chains to the judg- 
ment of the great day are quotations from the 'apocry- 
phal Book of Enoch, and are not founded upon fact. 
There is no sin, God will not forgive when repented of. 
The blasphemy against the Holy Ghost was only hard 
to repent of and therefore hard to forgive. But it was 
to be forgiven, When Jesus says; 'labor not for the 
meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth 
unto everlasting life, ' he means we shall labor for both 
but especially for the latter. When he says, we must 
not call our friends to our feasts but the unfortunates, 
he means we are to call both but especially the latter. 
When he says we must forgive our repentant brother, 
not seven times, but seventy times seven times, he 
means we shall forgive him as often as both numbers 
but especially as many times as the latter. So when 
he says that wicked words spoken against the Son of 
Man shall be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Holy 
Ghost shall not be forgiven, he means both shall be 
forgiven, but the latter shall be especially difficult of for- 
giveness. 'Neither in this world, neither in the world 
to come' means neither in this age, neither in the age 
about to come. 2 <Our Lord thus stood on the boundary 
line of the two ages, that of the Law and the Prophets, 
and that of the kingdom of heaven, ' or the Gospel. 
And the man who attributed to the power of evil the 
good works of Christ, would be hard for him or his fu- 
ture workers to convince and save. There is nothing 
said here about the future life, but we may be sure 
that whenever and wherever a soul repents and turns 
to God, it will be gladly received and welcomed by Him 
as was the returning prodigal. The Bible does not 

i Not Canonical. 

2 E. H. Plumptre, D.D. 

137 



teach a future day of general judgment. Christ's 
judgment day is the Gospel day. This day in its effi- 
ciency and power was very near in the time of Christ 
and his apostles. The Greek word mello means ' 'to be 
about to do or suffer anything.' The Centurion's ser- 
vant was ready to die. The nobleman's son was at 
the point of death. John the Baptist said to the Phar- 
isees, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath about 
to come? Paul reasoned before Felix of judgment 
about to come. The Apostle said to the Athenians on 
Mars Hill, God hath appointed a day, in which He is 
about to judge the world in righteousness by that man 
whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath given assur- 
ance unto all men, in that He hath raised him from the 
dead. ' The same apostle wrote to Timothy, <I charge 
thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, 
who is about to judge the quick and the dead at his ap- 
pearing and his kingdom.' In all these instances the 
same verb mello is used, but in the last four it has not 
been correctly translated and interpreted, because the 
Doctors who did the work believed a dogma of judg- 
ment which they wanted these texts to seem to support. 
The apostles expected their Master would soon come 
as judge. 2 'The Lord is at hand.' 3< Yet a little while, 
and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. ' 
Christ came in the power of histruth,and his judgment 
had auspicious beginning, when the faith he founded 
triumphed over its bitter opposer, the religion of the 
rabbins. 

i Robinson's Greek Lex. 

2 Phil. IV. 

3 Heb. X. 



I 3 8 



All the harsh passages in the New Testament 
that speak of tribulation and separation, are 
connected with the coming" of the Son of Man in 
the clouds of Heaven — Then he was to send forth 
his angels, and gather out of his kingdom all those that 
did iniquity, and cast them into a furnace of fire, where 
there was to be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then 
were the righteous to shine forth as the sun in the 
kingdom of their Father. Then the Son of Man was to 
send forth his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, 
and they were to gather his elect from the four winds, 
from one end of heaven to the other. Then one was 
to be taken from the field, and the other left; one 
woman from grinding at the mill, and the other left. 
Then the good man of the house was to make the 
faithful and wise servant ruler over all his goods, or 
over many things; and cut the unfaithful servant asun- 
der, or cast him into outer darkness. Then the Bride- 
groom was to admit the five wise virgins to the mar- 
riage; and say to the five foolish, I know you not. 
Then the Son of Man was to be seated on the throne of 
his glory, and all nations were to be gathered before 
him, and he was to separate them one from another as 
a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats. Then the 
sheep were placed on his right hand, but the goats on 
the left. Then he was to say to those on his right 
hand, Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the 
foundation of the world; and to those on the left, 
Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, pre- 
pared for the devil and his angels. Then these were 
to go away into everlasting punishment, but the right- 
eous into life eternal. 



139 



This coming" of the Son of Man in the clouds 
of heaven was when he received his kingdom 
from the Father, and was at the beginning of 
his mediatorial reign and not at its close. — <I 

saw in the night visions, and, behold one like the Son 
of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to 
the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before 
Him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, 
and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and lan- 
guages, should serve him.' . The reception of this divine 
authority and glory is closely connected with temporal 
kingdoms in the neighborhood of Judaea just prior to the 
founding of Christianity. 

The coming of the Son of Man in the clouds of 
heaven to rule, reward, and punish, was to be 
during the lifetime of some who heard the Mas- 
ter speak and before that generation passed 
away. — He said to his disciples ' < ye shall not have 
gone over the cities of Israel till the Son of Man be 
come.' 2 < The Son of Man shall come in the glory 
of His Father with his angels; and then he shall reward 
every man according to his works. Verily 1 say unto 
you, there be some standing here, which shall not taste 
of death, till they see the Son of Man coming in his 
kingdom.' 3 < Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and 
of my words, in this adulterous and sinful generation, of 
him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed, when he 
cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels. 
4< And he said unto them, verily 1 say unto you, that 

i Matthew X. 

2 Matthew XVI. 

3 Mark VIII. 

4 Mark IX. See also Luke IX. 

140 



there be some of them that stand here, which shall not 
taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God 
come with power. ' J < Then shall all the tribes of the 
earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man com- 
ing in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 
Verily 1 say unto you, this generation shall not pass, till 
all these things be fulfilled.' Many false prophets 
were to come claiming to be Christ. The disciples were 
to hear of wars and commotions. Earthquakes, famines, 
and pestilences were to be in divers places. Fearful 
sights and great signs were to be from heaven. The 
disciples were to be persecuted, delivered up to the syna- 
gogues, imprisoned, brought before rulers, and hated of all 
men for the name of Christ. They were to be betrayed 
by parents and brethren, and kinsfolks and friends. 
These were to cause the death of some of the disciples. 
The sun was to be darkened. The moon was not to 
give her light. The stars were to fall from heaven, 
and the powers of heaven were to be shaken. After 
all these things they were to see the Son of Man 
coming in a cloud with power and great glory. After 
telling his disciples all this, Jesus says to them 2 < When 
ye see these things come to pass know ye that the 
kingdom of God is nigh at hand. ' This is the kingdom 
Christ received at the beginning of his mediatorial 
reign. Now the coming of this kingdom in power and 
glory more than eighteen hundred years ago was preced- 
ed by all the calamitous events we have mentioned. 
And whoever interprets any of them as relating histori- 
cally to the yet future, contradicts his Lord. The 
twenty-fifth chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel is only 
an amplification or expansion of what is in the twenty - 

i Matthew XXIV. See also Mark XIII. 
2 Luke XXI. 

141 



fourth. The parable of the sheep and goats is connect- 
ed with the same coming of the Son of Man and the 
same glorious appearing of his kingdom that took place 
before the generation to which Christ belonged passed 
away. Such description as that the sun shall be dark- 
ened, the heavens shaken, and all nations gathered, 
is only the oriental imagery the prophets usually em- 
ploy in setting forth God's judgment upon wicked cities 
and countries. ' ' It lies in the very nature of such 
language that it precludes a literal interpretation.' 
The world in all of which the Gospel of the kingdom 
was to be published before the coming of Christ, is the 
oikoumena, 2< the inhabited earth,' 'the Roman world, 
the Roman Empire.' Throughout this dominion the 
Gospel was preached in the time of the Apostles. 

The coming' of Christ at which there was to be 
tribulation and separation was at the end of the 
Jewish age or dispensation when Judaism was 
overthrown. — The disciples were showing the Master 
the temple. He told them that in a destruction which 
was approaching there would not be left there one 
stone upon another. They said to him privately 
* When shall these things be? And what shall be 
the sign of thy coming and of the end of the world?' 
The overthrow, Christ's coming, and the end of the 
world were inclusive and simultaneous. The end of 
the world was the end of the Jewish age or dispensa- 
tion, the same end of the world in which Christ was 
crucified. 3 < Once in the end of the world hath he 
appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. ' 

i E. H. Plumtre, D. D. 

2 Robinson's Greek Lex. 

3 Hebrew IX. 

142 



This is the end of the world that came upon Paul and 
his contemporaries; the end of the world when the 
harvest was to be, and when the angels were to come 
forth and sever the wicked from among the just. In 
the New Testament the phrase end of the world is 
always end of the aion and always means the end 
of the Jewish age. Then the great calamity befell 
the Jews. The holy city and temple were ! < destroyed 
in a sublime death-struggle against the whole power 
of the Roman world.' The Christians of Judaea, 
remembering the Master's warning words, betook them- 
selves before the catastrophe to Pella beyond the Jor- 
dan. 2< When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with 
armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. 
Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the moun- 
tains. For these be the days of vengeance that all 
things which are written may be fulfilled. ' 

3 'There shall be a time of trouble, such as never 
was since there was a nation even to that same time : 
and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every 
one that shall be found written in the book. And 
many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall 
awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame 
and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise 
shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they 
that turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever 
and ever.' The question was asked in the vision: 
3< How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?' 
The answer was: 3< When he shall have accomplished 
to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things 

i Hase. 

2 Luke XXI. 

j Dan. XXII. 

H5 



shall be finished. ' This was done A. D. 70 at the 
destruction of Jerusalem, when according to Josephus 
1,100,000 of the Jews perished in the siege and 97,- 
000 were carried away captive. Then persecuting 
Judaism sunk and the kingdom of God rose. Then 
the civil polity and the sacrificial and ceremonial cult 
of the Jews passed away, and the Son of Man sat on 
the right hand of power, and began to rule and judge 
the world according to his Gospel. In the Epistles and 
book of Revelation this great event is spoken of as 
being very near. l * Little children, it is the last time: 
and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even 
now are there many antichrists; whereby we know 
that it is the last time. ' 2 < The end of all things is at 
hand. ' 3< Brethren, the time is short. ' 4< The coming 
of the Lord draweth nigh.' 5 < Behold, I come quickly. 
When Daniel saw the event, it was not to be for a 
time, times and a half. When the Revelator saw it, 
there was to be no more 6 time till it come. Daniel 
was commanded to seal the book till the time of the end. 
The revelator was commanded to seal not the book for 
the time was at hand. 7< He that is unjust, let him be 
unjust still.' 7 < Behold, I come quickly; and my re- 
ward is with me, to give every one according as his 
work shall be. ' 

Coonnected with and explained by this coming are the 
following additional topics and expressions. 8 < The 
resurrection of life and the resurrection of condemna- 
tion ' 9 ' seeking to save one's life and losing it. ' l0 ' The 

1 John II. 6 Rev.X. 

2 1 Peter IV. 7 Rev. XXII. 

3 I Cor. VII. 8JohnV. Daniel XII. 

4 James V- 9 Luke XVII. 

5 Rev. XXII. 10 Matthew XXIII. Jer. XIX. 

144 



condemnation of Gehenna. ' l( Their worm dieth not 
and their fire is not quenched. ' 2 * They shall be mine 
in that day when I make up my jewels, ' 2( The great 
and dreadful day of the Lord that shall burn as an 
oven. ' 3 < The day of judgment and perdition of ungod- 
ly men.' 4 <The passing away of the old heavens and 
earth with a great noise and the coming of the new. ' 
5 < All the judgment connected with the passing away of 
the old heavens and earth. ' 6 < The descent of the New 
Jerusalem out of heaven from God. ' Whoever care- 
fully examines these subjects will find that they all re- 
late to the passing aw ay of the Jewish dispensation and 
the beginning of the christian. The same is true of all 
the beasts, dragons, pits, lakes, deaths, resurrections^ 
and millenniums mentioned in the book of Revelation. 
They all had their historic fulfillment over eighteen 
centuries ago. The book of Revelation is a showing 
of things that were shortly to occur. Reading it, one 
passes through the tempest and tumult of oriental sym- 
bolism out into the bright warm sunshine of the gospel. 
In the Epistle to the Hebrews that which was old and 
decayed was ready to vanish away. In the book of 
Revelation the old, decaying, enfeebling, and corrupting 
elements are left behind and in the foreview is only the 
kingdom of God, which is to have and heal the nations. 
All mankind will at last be saved. — Writers 
who do not believe in the complete triumph of Christ's 
kingdom, are perplexed on account of their partialism, 

i Isa. LXV1. Mark IX. 

2 Mai. IV. 

3 II Peter III, 

4 II Peter III. Isa. LXVI. Rev, XXI and XXII. 

5 Rev. XXI. Daniel VII and XII. 

6 Rev. XXI. 

M5 



when they undertake to present the preeminence of the 
Christian religion above any other faith. For it is no 
credit to Christ or Christianity to permanently leave 
any soul in sin and suffering. Neither is it good in 
God to do so. He foreknew sin. But He must eith- 
er not create man or create him with the possibility of 
sin. Yet if He saw that He could never teach human- 
ity to be good, that any portion of it would be endless- 
ly miserable, He would never have created man. Uni- 
versal salvation is necessary to vindicate God's good- 
ness. 

This belief was prevalent in the Early Church. A 
glance at the first Christian schools will make this 
plain. ' < These four schools, — Alexandria, Caesarea, 
Antioch, and Eastern Syria, — were the only schools, 
properly so called, known to the early church. ' And the 
doctrine of universal salvation was taught in all of then. 
It will be necessary to dwell only upon the Alexan- 
drian school, which was the mother of the other three. 

Alexandria was then 2 « the seat of learning, and the 
center of all the liberal arts and sciences. ' Here arose 
about the middle cf the second century an ecclesiastical 
school which was 3 « the birthplace of Christian theology 
in the proper sense, ' and from which 4 ' proceeded those 
who represented the theology of their century. ' This 
school held that 4 ' everything which has fallen frcm 
God shall at some period be restored to its original 
source, ' that the ultimate end of all is 3 < a universal re- 
demption, consisting in the annihilation of all moral evil, 
and a universal restoration to that original unity of 
divine life out of which all had proceeded.' 

t Rev. Richard Eddy, D. D. 3 Nennder. 

2 Mosheim. 4 Hase. 

146 



Origenwas the great master of the Alexandrian 
school. He held undoubtedly ' < the first place among 
the interpreters of the scriptures in his century. ' ' « He 
surpassed all others in diligence, assiduity, and learn- 
ing. ' 2 < For centuries his influence upon the whole 
church was powerful, by means of his writings and a 
circle of followers which gathered around him, and 
formed a seminary of eminent teachers and bishops for 
the church. ' He wrote a chapter on the < End or Con- 
summation' in which he says: 3 < We think, indeed, that 
the goodness of God through His Christ, may recall all 
His creatures to one end, even his enemies being con- 
quered and subdued. For thus says holy Scripture: 
The Lord said to my Lord, sit thou at my right hand 
until I make thine enemies thy footstool. And if the 
meaning of the prophet's language here be less clear, 
we may ascertain it from the Apostle Paul, who speaks 
more openly thus: For he must reign until he has put 
all enemies under his feet. . . .What then is this putting 
under by which all things must be subject to Christ ?' 
I am of opinion that it is this very subjection by which we 
also wish to be subject to him, by which the apostles 
also were subject, and all the saints who have been 
followers of Christ. ' Origen teaches that every ra- 
tional creature, by instruction and discipline, either in 
this life or the next, will be brought into the final unity 
and fitness of things. 

The scriptures teach the final holiness and happiness 
of all mankind. Everywhere in the Bible we get 

i Mosheim. 

2 Hase. 

3 Origen. De Principiis. 



147 



glimpses of a future when He, who will have all men 
to be saved, shall finish his work; when the earth shall 
be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters 
cover the sea; when all shall know Him, from the least 
to the greatest; when the kingdoms of this world shall 
become the kingdoms of God and of His Christ; when 
the Messiah shall see of the travail of his soul, and be 
satisfied; when all who are spiritually dead in sin, shall 
be made alive in Christ; when all the world shall, like 
all Israel, be saved; when every one shall know, what 
many have thus far failed to see, that Christianity has 
brought good tidings of great joy to all people. 

1 * And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will 
draw all men unto myself.' 8 <For the creature 
was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by rea- 
son of Him who hath subjected the same in hope; be- 
cause the creature itself also shall be delivered from the 
bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the 
children of God. ' 3 < For as the rain cometh down, and 
the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but 
watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, 
that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the 
eater: so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my 
mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall ac- 
complish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the 
thing whereto 1 sent it. 

4( Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends 

of the earth: for lam God, and there is none else. 

I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my 

mouth in righteousness and shall not return, that unto 

i John XII. 3 Isa. LV. 

2 Roman VII. 4 Isa. XLV. 



148 



me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear, 
surely shall say, in the Lord have I righteousness and 
strength. ' ! i For He hath put all things under his feet. 
But when He saith, All things are put under him, it i$ 
manifest that He is excepted, which did put all things 
under him. And when all things shall be subdued unto 
him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto 
Him that put all things under him, that God may be all 
in all. ' 2 < In these words are expressed the complete 
redemption both of the race and of the individual. ' ' Then 
cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the 
kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have 
put down all rule, and all authority and power. ' At 
the conclusion of the Messiah's mediatorial reign will be 
the grand consummation, when every soul will be saved, 
when the last lost sheep will be restored to the fold 
and added to the ninety and nine. There will then be 
no antichrists, nor separation of the wicked from the 
righteous; for all will have believed in Christ and be- 
come righteous. There is no persecution, nor tribu- 
lation, nor separation, connected with the close of 
Christ's reign. The kingdom of the Son of God was 
set up in a day of antichrists, a day of great trouble, 
when wars and commotions were rife in the world. 
But when he shall finish his mediatorial work, and de- 
liver up his kingdom to the Father, all will have become 
Christian, hatred and strife will have ceased from 
among men, and the truth and love and peace of 
God will have taken up their abode in every human 
soul whether on the earth or in the heavens. 

i I Cor. XV. 

2 T. Teignmouth Shore. M. A., Chaplain to the Queen. 



149 



NOTES AND CRITICISMS. 

What by some writers is to-day termed Physiolog- 
ical Psychology is '< The science which inves- 
tigates the corelations which exist between the 
structure and functions of the human nervous mechan- 
ism and the phenomena of consciousness, and which 
derives therefrom conclusions as to the laws and nature 
of the mind. ' The study of Physiology in a broad sense 
in connection with Psychology proper, has thrown 
much light upon the origin development and laws of 
the soul, but has done nothing to discredit introspection 
by which alone the soul's acts and states are directly 
known and classified. 

The word mind is used by many to signify intellect 
as distinguished from feeling and will, but in this work 
in quotations it is synonomous with the term soul. 

Infinite space and eternal time a^e not, as some think, 
self-existences independent of and objective to God. 
There is, we may be sure, no infinity nor eternity exist- 
ing separate from or external to His nature. 

Haeckel surmises that the predecessors of the vege- 
table kingdom are protists with harder envelopes, and 
that the forerunners of the more mobile animal type of 
organism are protists with softer envelopes. 

The similitude chosen by professor Huxley to repre- 
sent the relation of living forms to one another is * that 

i ProfLadd. 

150 



of a common root, whence two main trunks, one repre- 
senting the vegetable and one the animal world spring; 
and, each dividing into a few main branches, these sub- 
divide into a multitude of branchlets and these into 
smaller groups of twigs. ' 

Let us have ' < faith enough to see the hand of God 
as clearly in a long providential development as in a 
sudden miracle.' 

There were several somewhat divergent accounts of 
the creation, current in ancient Babylonia. 

It appears that in later Babylonian times the tree of 
life 2< was an amalgamation of two actual trees, the 
cedar and the palm'; and that 2< the tree of life and 
the tree of knowledge were one and the same. ' 

2< The river which watered the Garden of Eden was 
the Persian Gulf, known to the Babylonians as << the 
river, "or more fully, " the bitter" or "salt river. " 
It was regarded as the source of the four other rivers 
whose "heads " were at the spots where they flowed 
into the source which at once received and fed them. ' 

With reference to the higher criticism of the Bible 

Prof. Briggs says: « In the field of scholarship the 

question is settled. It only remains for the ministry 

and people to accept it and adapt themselves to it. ' 

i W. Robertson Smith. 
2 Prof .Sayce. 



151 



A PARTIAL LIST OF AUTHORS QUOTED IN THIS 
WORK. 

Abbott, Rev. Lyman, D. D. 

Baur, Ferdinand Christian, Prof, of Theology, 
University of Tiibingen. 

Bleek, Frederick, Prof, of Bib. Lit, University 
of Bonn. 

Briggs, Charles Augustus, Prof., Union Theol. 
Seminary. 

Beecher, Rev. Henry Ward. 

Brooke, Rev. Stopford a. 

Bushnell, Rev. Horace. 

CALDERWOOD, HENRY, Prof, of Moral Phil., Univer- 
sity of Edinburgh. 

Chapin, James H., Prof, of Geql. and Min., St. 
Lawrence University. 

CHEYNE, REV. THOMAS K., Eng. Biblical Critic. 

Chipiez, CHARLES, Eminent Fr. Archaeologist. 

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, Eng. Metaphysician 
and Poet. 

DANA, JAMES D., Prof, of Geol. and Min., Yale Uni- 
versity. 

DAVIDS, T. W. RHYS, Prof, of Buddhist Lit, Uni- 
versity Coll., Lon. 

Davidson, Rev. Smith, D. D. 

DELlTZSCH, FRANZ, Prof, of Theol. University of 
Leipzic. 

Dods, Rev. Marcus, D. D. 

Eddy, Rev. Richard, D. D. 



152 



Fisher, GEORGE Park, Prof, of Eccl. History, Yale 
University. 

FlSKE, JOHN, Prof, of Phil., Harvard University. 

Geikie, Rev. Cunningham, D. D. 

Gessenius, William, Prof, of Theol., University of 
Halle. 

Guild, Rev. E. E. 

HAECKEL, ERNEST, Prof, of Z06I., University of 
Jena. 

HARRIS, SAMUEL, Prof, of Theol., Yale University. 

Hase, Charles, Prof, of Theol., University of Jena. 

HODGE, CHARLES, Prof., Princeton Theol. Semi- 
nary. 

HOPKINS, MARK, President of Williams College. 

HUME, DAVID, Scot. Historian and Phil. 

HUXLEY, T. H., Prof, of Phys., Royal College of 
Surgeons, Eng. 

KUENEN, ABRAHAM, Prof, of Theol. at Leyden. 

Ladd, George Trumbull, Prof, of Phil., Yale 
University. 

LeCONTE JOSEPH, Pres. University of California. 

LEGGE, JAMES, Prof, of Chinese Lit. and Language, 
University of Oxford. 

LENORMANT, FRANCOIS, Eminent Archaeologist and 
Historian. 

Martineau, Rev. James, D. D., L. L. D., Principal 
Manchester New College, London. 

MOSHEIM, JOHN LAWRENCE, Chanc. Univ. of Got- 
tingen. 

NEANDER, AUGUSTUS, Prof, of Theol., University of 
Berlin. 

PLUMTRE, E. H., Prof, of Theol., King's College, 
London. 

153 



PERROT, GEORGE, Eminent Fr. Archaeologist. 
PORTER, NOAH, D. D., Pres. Yale University. 
RAWLINSON, GEORGE, Prof, of Ancient History, Uni- 
versity of Oxford. 

Renan, Ernest, Pres. French Academy. 

ROBERTSON, REV. FREDERICK W. 

ROBINSON, EDWARD, Prof., Union Theol. Seminary. 

Shore, Rev. T. Teignmouth, Chaplain to the 
Queen. 

Smith, George, Eminent Eng. Orientalist. 

Smith, William, Eminent Eng. Class. Scholar. 

Smith, W. ROBERTSON, Prof, of Heb., Free Church 
Coilege, Aberdeen. 

Stewart, Balfour, Prof, of Nat. Phil., The 
Owens College, Manchester, England. 

Tait, P. G., Eng. Mathematician. 

THOM, Rev. John Hamilton, Manchester, Eng. 

Westcott, Brooke FOSS, Bp. of Durham. 

Whitney, William Dwight, Prof, of Com. Philol. 
and Sansk., Yale University. 

Wright, Rev. G. Frederick, Andover, Mass. 



154 



A PARTIAL LIST OF WORKS FROM WHICH QUO- 
TATIONS ARE MADE IN THIS VOLUME. 

< The Human Intellect' Pres. Potter. 

1 Psychology, Descriptive and Explanatory. ' Prof. 
Ladd. 

1 Physiological Psychology. ' Prof. Ladd. 

1 The Relations of Mind and Brain. ' Prof Calder- 
wood. 

« Philosophical Basis of Theism.' Prof. Han is. 

< A Study of Religon.' James Mattineau. 

* Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy. ' Prof. Fiske. 

* Excursions of an Evolutionist. ' Prof. Fiske. 

« Evolution in its Relation to Religious Thought. ' 
Pres. Leconte. 

1 Studies in Science and Religion. ' G. F. Wtight. 

1 Princeton Review. ' Profs. Whitney, Fisher, and 
Pres. Leconte. 

< Encyclopaedia Britannica. ' Profs. Whitney, Hux- 
ley > and several others. 

1 Problems of the Future. ' 5. Laing. 
1 New Commentary on Genesis.' Franz Delitzsch. 
1 History of the People of Israel. ' Ernest Retian. 
1 Assyrian Discoveries. ' Geo. Smith. 

< Chaldaean Account of Genesis. ' Geo. Smith. 

* The Beginnings of History in the Bible, and the 
Traditions of Oriental Peoples.' F. Lenormant. 

1 Fresh Light from the Ancient Monuments. ' Prof 
Sayce. 



155 



1 Lectures on the Origin and Growth of the Religion 
of the Ancient Babylonians.' Prof. Sayce. 

1 The Five Great Monarchies of the Ancient Eastern 
World.' Geo. Rawlinson. 

'The History of Art in Chaldaea and Assyria.' 
Perrot and CJiipiez. 

' The Higher Criticism and the Verdict of the Monu- 
ments.' Prof Sayce. 

' What is the Bible.' Prof Ladd. 

' Evolution of Christianity.' Lyman Abbott. 

* Prolegomena to the History of Israel. ' WellJiansen. 
'Preface to Wellhausen's Prolegomena.' W. R. 

Smith. 

'The Higher Criticism of the Hexateuch. ' Ptof 
Biiggs. 

' Introduction to the New Testament. F. Bleek 

1 Logic of Christian Evidences. ' G. F. Wright. . 

« Manual of Christian Evidences. ' Prof Fisher. 

' The Gospels. ' Ernest Renan. 

* The Life of Jesus. ' Ernest Renan. 

* Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Indian 
Buddhism. ' Rhys Davids. 

1 The Religions of China. ' Prof Legge. 
' The Life and Words of Christ. ' C. Geikie. 

* The Unseen Universe. ' Stewart and Tait. 

1 The Gospel of the Resurrection. ' Bishop West 
cott. 

'Hours of Thought on Sacred Things.' "James 
Martineaa. 

1 Faith and Freedom. ' Stopford Brooke. 

' The Handy Commentary. ' Bishop Ellicoti. 



i 5 6 



SUPPLEMENTARY TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

Evolution and God's Immanence. 158 

Evolution and Environment. 160 

Organism and Soul. 158 

The Missing Link. 159 

Reason and Religion. 161 

The Evolution of Revelation. 162 

The Evolution of the Sabbath Idea. 163 

Zoroaster and the Bible. 164 
Christianity the Perfection and Fulfilment of all 

Other Religions. 166 

The Parable of the Talents. 167 

Disuse of the Religious Faculties. 167 

Fixation of Evil Character. 167 

Egoism and Altruism. 169 

The Holy Spirit. 27 

Salvation of All and Freedom of the Will. 170 

Heaven and the Kingdom of Heaven. 171 

The New Jerusalem. 172 

Eternal Life and Immortality. 174 

Conclusion. 174 



157 



ADDITIONAL NOTES AND CRITICISMS. 

1. 

Such light has been thrown upon the field of science 
that no room is left for the fear or the assertion that 
some new fact which may be discovered will throw our 
scientific knowledge back into the confusion from which 
it has emerged. 

II. 

1 • Nature is God's writing and can only tell the 
truth. ' 

111. 

1 ' There are reverent minds who ceaselessly scan the 
fields of nature and the books of science in search of 
gaps — gaps which they fill up with God. As if God 
lived in gaps.' ' ' If God appears periodically, He dis- 
appears periodically. If He comes upon the scene at 
special crises, He is absent from the scene in the inter- 
vals. ' Whether is constant God or occasional God 
the nobler theory? The former, or the idea of an im- 
manent God, which is the idea of evolution, is infinitely 
grander than the occasional wonder-worker which is 
the idea of an old theology. 

IV. 
It is not a just criticism of the Philosophy of Evolu- 
tion advocated in these pages to say that it passes from 

i Henry Drummond, Ascent of Man. 

i 5 8 



organism to soul. There is no development of matter 
into life or conscious spirit. The soul is individuated 
force. Matter and energy have been together from 
bottom to top. Their evolution has been upward and 
parallel to each other. The higher the material organ- 
ism the higher the force individuation and manifesta- 
tion. 

V. 

The veritable missing link, that which has so long 
been thought of and sought for, has at last been found. 
In September and October, 1891, and August, 1892, 
Dr. Dubois, a surgeon in the Dutch Indian army, and a 
competent observer, discovered, in Java, near Trinil, 
a tooth, the skull, and the thigh bone of a creature 
intermediate between the higher apes and the lower 
men. The three specimens were found in the later ter- 
tiary strata, in the same Geological horizon and in the 
same volcanic tufa, and evidently belonged to the same 
individual. The tooth is decidedly simian; the cranial 
capacity is twice that of the orang and two-thirds that 
of the average European human skull; the thigh bone 
is equal in its dimensions to that of man, and adapted 
to walking in an upright posture. This form is a long- 
looked-for link between apehood and manhood. 

1 < It is only justice to Dr. Dubois to say that he has 
proved to science the existence of a new pre-historic 
anthropoid form, not human indeed, but in size, brain 
power, and erect posture, much nearer man than any 
animal hitherto discovered, living or extinct. 

1 Prof. O. C. Marsh, Yale Univ., Art. in American Journal of 
Science, February, 1895. 

159 



1 ' That still other intermediate forms will eventually 
be brought to light, no one familiar with the subject can 
doubt. ' 

VI. 

Everything that lives does so in virtue of its corres- 
pondence with its environment. * <■ Evolution is not 
merely unfolding from within. It is also infolding from 
without. Growth is no mere extension from a root, 
but a taking possession of, or a being possessed by, an 
ever widening environment, a continuous process of 
assimilation of the seen or unseen flowing into the 
developing organism from the universe around it. ' And 
environment is not a fixed quantity, but itself rises 
with the evolving form of life, just as with every step 
a climber rises up a mountain side his environment 
must change. God and his universe are the ground 
and environment of the soul, and in its evolution it has 
ever been receiving from the same. 

VII. 

3 'The Cuneiform literature now translated and avail- 
able for the use of the student is greater than that of 
the O. T.' 

VIII. 

3 « By the higher criticism is meant a critical enquiry 
into the nature, origin, and date of the documents with 
which we are dealing, as well as into the historical value 
and credibility of the statements which they contain. ' 

i Prof. O. C. Marsh, Yale Univ., Art. in American Journal of 
Science, February, 1895. 

2 Henry Drummond. 

3 Prof. Sayce. 

160 



IX. 

Many men make the mistake of thinking that they 
must either accept or reject the Bible in toto. As on 
the magnet iron filings arrange themselves around each 
end of the bar, leaving the middle bare; so some men 
rush to one or the other of the opposite poles of thought, 
when the truth resides between the extremes. 

X. 

The present contains very much of the past. The 
ideas of any age mingle with the life of the succeeding 
generation and tincture that newer time. It is true, as 
a general rule, that the stream of history grows clearer 
as it flows; but it is not because the current will carry 
down only the good; but because man interposes a bar- 
rier, arrests the turbid elements, and tries to let only the 
sweet waters through. 

This interposition has never been entirely effective. 
So from every past, contents from the fountains of life 
and from the marshes of death, have come down to 
every present. Bias is borne along with justice, pre- 
judice passes down the stream with truth, the evil with 
the good. 

Our religious inheritance is not an exception to this 
law. It is richer in the elements of truth and right sen- 
timent than that possessed by any previous generation. 
But let us not think that we are to be spared the duty 
of distinguishing the true from the false, the right from 
the wrong, the divine from what is not divine, the 
perishable fancy from the eternal reality. 1 And our 
sacred authority to stand up for us in the field of relig- 

i ' Seat of Authority in Religion,' James Martineau. 

161 



ious literature and thought and divide between the liv- 
ing and the dead is our God-given reason. To refuse 
to recognize and use this criterion is not only weakness, 
but treason to the Giver. 

XI 

Revelation is the result of evolution. Our store of 
moral and religious truth has not been handed down to 
man directly out of heaven from God, but it has been 
bequeathed to us by means of a growth or develop- 
ment fostered by the Divine Spirit immanent in the 
world and in humanity. Divine truth has, in the pro- 
vidence of God, been certified to man's consciousness 
as such slowly and by degrees as daylight attests itself 
simply by its gradual and at length complete emergence 
from the shadows of the night. It is not true that the so- 
called Mosaic legislation was instituted by a stroke, that \\ 
was all delivered by Moses in a mass, that it was given 
centuries before the rise of the conditions under which 
some parts of it would become applicable, and that the 
subsequent history of the people is mainly a record of 
their negligence of, or their apostacy from the Divine 
teachings of their finished code. Just as if a parent 
should deliver to his little boy at once all the good advice 
appropriate to the whole period of his growth up to 
manhood, leaving him thus furnished to remember and 
apply it as occasion should arise, and mainly confining 
his subsequent teaching to rebukes for forgetfulness or 
neglect. This is not man's method neither is it God's. 
The moral and ritualistic code of the Jews grew from 
age to age gradually expanding as the exigencies of new 
situations and conditions required and as the lessons of 

162 



experience were successively formulated. Thus natur- 
ally and gradually has God ever been revealing Himself 
and His truth to mankind. 

XII. 

1 ' The Sabbath rest was a Babylonian as well as a 
Hebrew institution. Its origin went back to pre-Sem- 
itic days, and the very name Sabbath by which it was 
known in Hebrew was of Babylonian origin.' The 
Semite Babylonians derived 4 it from two Sumerian or 
pre-Semitic woids sa and bat which meant respectively 
heart and ceasing.' ' ' In the Cuneiform tablets the 
Sabbath is described as a day of rest for the soul. ' 

The Hebrews took the institution, divested it of many 
of its heathen associations, divorced it from all connec- 
tion with Babylonian Astronomy and the polytheistic 
worship with which it was bound up, and transformed 
it into a means of binding their nation more closely 
together. 

The Sabbath is a good illustration of the evolution of 
an idea or an institution. Among the Babylonians the 
seventh day was sacred to a certain deity, the four- 
teenth to another, and so on through the month. 
Among the Hebrews every seventh day was sacred to 
the one God. The Sabbath was first probably an 
unlucky day. Then it became successively a rest day, 
a fast day, a holy day for worship and spiritual educa- 
tion. This last characteristic has passed into the institu- 
tion of the Lord's Day, which may be regarded as a 
transformation of the Sabbath. The sacred and Divine 
element in the institution has increased from age to age 

i Professor Sayce. 

163 



and is now indispensable to the highest civilization and 
the best life. 

XIII. 

The doctrine of reward and punishment prevalent in 
Christendom, and the Satan of the Gospels and of the 
Apocalypse are in the main an adoption from Zoroaster 
and the religion of the Persians. Be it remembered that 
about 536 B. C. the Hebrews were permitted by 
Cyrus, King of Persia, to return to Palestine and rebuild 
their city and temple, and that for about two hundred 
years the Jews were vassals of the Persians. And the 
influence of this people upon Jewish thought did 
not terminate with the Greek supremacy. The connec- 
tion between Persia and Jerusalem is notorious. l ' It is 
equally notorious that many new ideas of various 
descriptions were imported from Persia into Judea.' 

2 * The influence of Persia is the strongest that Judaism 
has ever known. ' Her religious literature ' 3 was never 
more eagerly studied than in the first centuries of the 
Christian era.' 3 « And the real object aimed at in the 
study of the old religion was to form a new one.' 

3 ' Religious and philosophical sects in search of new 
dogmas eagerly received whatever came to them bear- 
ing the name of Zoroaster. ' 

In the Zend A vesta, which contains the teachings of 
Zarathustra or Zoroaster, we find the following concep- 
tions. The existence of two great spirits, a Good One 
and an Evil. The world-long conflict between the 

1 L. H. Mills, D.D., Nineteenth Century, January, 1894. 

2 Renan. 

3 James Darmesteter, Introduction to Zend A vesta, 

164 



two. Their strife for man's soul. The sending of the 
human spirit after death to a place of reward or punish- 
ment according as its good deeds or evil preponderate. 
An intermediate state for the reception of those whose 
good works equal their evil. The l 'temptation of 
Zoroaster at the beginning of his public career by the Evil 
One. A dialogue between the Tempter and the 
Tempted. His offer to Zarathustra of the reward which 
a mythical wicked ruler received who had previously 
reigned over the nations of the world. Zoroaster's 
refusal to renounce the religion of the Good Spirit and 
his repellance of the Evil One chiefly by repeating the 
holy scripture of the Good Being. The flight of Satan 
from the Tempted. Speculations about a millenium and 
a general resurrection and judgment of mankind. The 
binding of Satan to a mountain. His lying there in 
bonds till the end of the world or of the millenium. 
His being loosed for a a short time and his taking hold 
of the world again. His final overthrow and precipita- 
tion into the abyss. Along with much else all these 
conceptions came from Persia into Palestine. The 
Pharisees represented the Persian tendency. With 
these ideas our Lord had little to do. But in the early 
days of Christianity, during the development of dog- 
ma, they found their way into the church. These 
are the doctrines of which the intelligent Christian 
world is weary. And may we not hope that the time 
will soon come when Christian men and women 
entrusted with the religious training of the young will 
cease inculcating dogmas whose root is in Persian dual- 
ism and in a false conception of God's universe. 

i Zend Avesta. Part i, P. 206. 

165 



The Persians also expected the advent of a restoring 
Saviour, who would complete the redemption of the 
world, and who in a certain sense was to be the 
descendant of Zoroaster and the offspring of a virgin. 
It is not impossible nor improbable that in the early 
period of the Christian Church, when it was struggling 
with competing Gnostic systems, some pre-existent 
mythical natal elements may have gathered around the 
nativity of the noble founder of Christianity and by 
and by surrounded his human face with the aureole of a 
supermundane being. 

XIV. 

Certain forms of the Golden Rule are found in the 
literature of the Brahmins, Buddhists, and Persians. 

XV. 

The Gospel does not furnish a series of perfectly new 
truths of which nature and humanity had been pro- 
foundly silent. It is not the function of Christianity to 
administer truth entirely new, but to corroborate by 
fresh evidence, to invest with new beauty and to pub- 
lish to the millions with greater power a faith which 
was in part, at least, already latent in the hearts of 
many and scattered through the speculations of the 
wise and noble few. 

XVI. 

1 « The glory of Christianity, urged Jowett, is not to 
be as unlike other religions as possible but to be their 
perfection and fulfillment. ' 

i Henry Drummond. 

1 66 



XVII. 

The parable of the talents teaches loss of opportunity 
and not extirpation of the original endowments of the 
soul. In the parable every man receives according to 
his ability. The natural endowments of the soul are 
represented by the abilities and not by the talents. 
The latter which the unfaithful lose by non-use are 
such bequests as opportunities to do good, spheres of 
duty, offices of trust in the administration of Christian 
truth. These are what Christ gave to his disciples and 
would take away from the slothful and give to others. 
To transfer an original endowment of the soul from one 
to another is a psychological impossibility. 

This parable gives no support to the doctrine of the 
annihilation of the wicked or the fixation of evil charac- 
ter. There is no such thing in human life as an abso- 
lute disuse of the powers by which we know God and 
moral truth. We apprehend the Deity and things 
spiritual by the same reason, the same powers of reflec- 
tion, judgment and inference, the same heart and will 
that we use in all our earthly relations and occupations 
from day to day. 

XVIII. 

1 < The habits of the mind are analogous to those of 
the body, and habit may be called a second nature in 
both; but there is a considerable difference between the 
two, according to the nature of that of which they are 
habits. Habits of the body take their place in a mater- 
ial organization which so far as it is matter is out of 
ourselves and beyond our will; and permanent states or 

i John Grote, 'Moral Ideals.' 

167 



conformations are established, which no power of will 
can remedy. Habits of the mind are always mixed 
with a certain degree of estimation, judgment, opinion, 
which is in its nature alterable, and as such may lead 
to alteration of the habits. When, therefore, habits of 
the mind are considered to constitute a second nature, it 
must be considered also, that mental nature can never 
be counted as immovably or irremediably fixed, but that, 
reason being always capable of adding fresh knowledge, 
and feeling being always susceptible of fresh impres- 
sions, the greatest changes may be produced in the 
nature and character without destroying the individ- 
uality. ' 

XIX. 

1 < Almost the greatest service of the many which 
religion has rendered to the world, is its having rein- 
forced the side which maintains that there is always in 
the character, however fixed and however educated, a 
spring and possibility of improvement. This it has 
done in two ways; both by strongly urging upon us the 
enduring and immortal nature of the soul, as contrasted 
with the growing and declining life of the body; and 
next by protesting in behalf of the individual, and in 
right of a superior and nobler influence which may be 
brought to bear upon him, against the absolute and 
necessary dominion over him of any earthly state and 
habit, which always may be shattered and broken up 
by the spiritual force within. ' 

XX. 

2 * In the latency of every soul there lurks, among the 

i John Grote. 

2 James Martineau. 

1 68 



things it loves and venerates, some earnest and salient 
point, whence a divine life may be begun and radiate; 
some incipient idea of duty, it may be, some light mist 
of disinterested love, appearing vague and nebulous and 
infinitely distant within the mighty void, — a broken 
fringe of holy light, seen only in the spirit's deepest 
darkness: and therein may be the stirrings of a mystic 
energy, and the haze may be gathered together, and 
glow within the mind into a star, — a sun, — a piercing 
eye of God ' 

XXI. 

1 * It was a remarkable and practical application of the 
theory of the Stoics that virtue was according to nature, 
vice against it, that they considered a state of attained 
virtue one of stable equilibrium, i. e., one not likely, 
hardly possible, to be departed from; whereas a state 
of lapse into vice, they considered one of unstable 
equilibrium because against nature. ' 

XXII. 

We are and ever shall be law-girt. The fundamen- 
tal drift of this universe is and ever will be upward. 
Generally speaking our environment is such and 
promises ever to be in greater and greater degree such as 
naturally to thwart our evil purposes and discipline us in 
virtue. By reason of the most fundamental laws of 
nature and human activity moral evil tends to disap- 
pear. Every one who has studied the evolution of 
society knows that it has ever been the breaking up of 
egoistic, selfish, and hateful habits and the establishing 
of the altruistic, benevolent life of love. 

i John Grote. 

169 



XXIII. 

The salvation of all mankind is consonant with the 
freedom of the will. God respects our personality. 
He does not coerce our will. He asks for our free love 
and service. He appeals to us for quite another obedi- 
ence than that which is rendered by rock or tree or star. 
So for any unrepentant soul in any world there is no 
deliverance from the thraldom of sin and suffering until 
the will has consented to the eternal moral order. And 
with the soul that goes into the future life unrepentant, 
the natural process of penalty and discipline, attended 
by God's persuading grace and His inviting love, contin- 
ues until the alien will succumbs. 

It is impossible for disobedience to find in God's uni- 
verse a tranquil and permanent abode. Sooner or later 
in this life or the next by sad and bitter experience if 
not otherwise, the last persistent offender will come to 
himself, see the futility of further resistance to the 
Divine order and humbly and freely turn and walk with 
God. And in such conversion there need be no more 
violation of the soul's freedom than has been necessary 
for man's salvation ever since the morning of regenera- 
tion. ' Thy people shall be willing in the day of Thy 
power. ' 

Man is free indeed but never abandoned by his Crea- 
tor. Not only does the Eternal beset him before and be- 
hind and lay His hand upon him, but also is within him. 
And the unrelenting powers of truth and right have 
ever a hold upon him: the infinite persuasions of God's 
goodness and love never forsake him: his deathless con- 
science with its eternal protest against evil and proclaim 



170 



of oughtness to do right is ever uttering itself in his 
soul: and sooner or later, of his own free will, he is 
sure to yield himself to the right, the true, the good, 
and the beautiful. 

The grounds of belief in such result at last for all 
are; the suffering of sin; the misery of mistake; the 
blessedness of right conduct; the natural superiority of 
right over wrong, of truth over falsehood; the soul's 
natural love of harmony rather than discord, of beauty 
rather than ugliness, of joy and peace rather than 
trouble and sorrow. Because a soul is mistaken, sinful, 
and foolish now is no reason that it will always choose 
to remain so. In human history we perceive an ever 
increasing conformity to God's laws physical and moral. 
This ever progressive or growing obedience is another 
solid foundation for the belief in the ultimate harmony, 
with the Divine Will, of all human action. Then there 
are the Scriptural promises of the complete triumph of 
the Kingdom of Christ. And bear in mind that predic- 
tion of the certainty of submission to God does not im- 
ply necessitated submission to Him. It is simply the 
voiced prevision of man's voluntary surrender to the 
All-Holy. And God's foreknowledge of the ultimate 
obedience of all His children, without which He would 
not have created them; is simply His pre-vision of their 
future and free service to Him. 

XXIV. 

The object of our Lord's labor was not to get people 
into a place called heaven but into a state or condition 
of life called the kingdom of heaven. In the Greek 
N. T. the form of the phrase is plural. It is always 



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the kingdom of the heavens. This phrase occurs in 
the Bible only in St. Matthew's Gospel where it is 
found as many as twenty-nine times and where its 
equivalents, 'the kingdom of God ' and 'the kingdom' 
occur several times each. So in the first Gospel this 
kingdom which is within the soul and which is right- 
eousness and peace and joy, is mentioned by the Master 
not far frcm forty times, while in the same Gospel he 
uses the word heaven in connection with reward only 
twice, and in these two instances the important thing 
is not where the soul is but what it is. The treasures 
he exhorts us to lay up in heaven are good works or 'the 
character formed by them which follow us into the 
unseen world. ' The reward which his persecuted fol- 
lowers were to receive in heaven is not the place to 
which they went but their consciousness there of hav- 
ing been eminently faithful here and of being known 
there as having been eminently faithful here to the 
great trust confided to their care. 'Literally great is 
your reward in the heavens, the plural being used, imply- 
ing in its grand vagueness, like the many mansions, the 
absence of any space-limits' to the immortal world 
which rims us round and is infinite. 

XXV 

The Holy City of which we read in the last two 
chapters of the Apocalypse, the New Jerusalem with 
its jasper walls, pearl gates, golden streets, river of 
life, trees of life, divine light, eternal day, is not a 
description of a local heaven in the future life, but a 
picture of the great and growing church, the kingdom 
of God in the present world. By the seer was seen 

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from the mountain of contemplation this mystic city 
descending from God out of heaven. And its procla- 
mation was: 'Behold the tabernacle of God is with 
men and He will dwell with them, and they shall be 
His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and 
be their God. ' 

In the midst of the light of this mystic city are the 
nations to walk. Within its borders are the kingsof the 
earth to bring their glory. Within HraTeto be brought 
the glory and honor of the nations. ' The leaves of its 
trees of life are for the healing of the nations. Its 
gates are never shut. They stand open always. 
And though no evil thing can find a home therein, yet 
the blessed call of the Spirit and the bride is ever 
going forth: « Let him that is athirst come. And 
whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. 
There is another and higher world, and there are helps 
to holiness there. But the New Jerusalem is a sym- 
bol of salvation amidst these earthly scenes. 

1 « The misconceptions and misrepresentations of the 
Christian's hope have been many and reckless. ' l 'There 
is always a certain proportion of people who seem in- 
capable of understanding figurative language. Half the 
errors of the church have been due to prosaic-minded 
men who could not discern the difference between figure 
and fact; and men of unpoetical and vehement tempera- 
ment have blundered over these descriptions, and their 
blunders have discredited the whole Apocalypse in the 
eyes of some. ' The same may be truly said of the 
whole Bible. 

i W. Boyd Carpenter, D.D. 

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XXVI. 

The reward of righteousness is the good life itself., 
Salvation is Godlike character. It is what the soul is 
and not its habitat. Jesus is ever talking to his follow- 
ers about life. 'I am come,' he says, 'that they might 
have life, and that they might have it abundantly. ' 'I will 
give unto them eternal life.' And St. John says: 'This 
is the promise which he has promised us, even eternal 
life. ' This eternal or everlasting life is not to be con- 
founded with immortality. It is spiritual life, the Christ 
quality of life. It is possessed in this world in propor 
tion to our righteousness here. It is the life of God in- 
the soul of man, is the highest thing we can have in 
any world, and is the true goal of all Christian endeavor. 

XXVII. 

To adjust Christianity to its new environment, to 
show how in the light of the newer knowledge of to-day 
true religion and theology is to be conserved, to apply 
to Christian faith the results of recent research in fields 
that border Biblical lore is at the present time the 
imperative duty of the devotee to Christian thought. 
To aid, though but little, in this needed service to 
truth, is the purpose of these pages. We have 
spoken only after careful study; and feel sure that 
the views we have here presented will find accept- 
ance in the universal and abiding faith of mankind. 



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